Chevelle: Wonder What's Next : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Chevelle's formula becomes clear a few tracks into their second album. For most of these eleven songs, Illinois' Loeffler brothers -- Pete, Sam and Joe -- lay dark, churning riffs over stuttering brontosaurus stomps. Then Pete struggles with repressed emotions ("I liked having hurt/So send the pain below, where I need it"), and resolves the song -- if not the issues -- with a throat-shredding scream. Not surprisingly, the disc is a mirthless affair. No light enters these midtempo, Sabbath-y monochromes, which suits their subject matter. The message: Express yourself or implode. Few will doubt Pete's sincerity. But songs this charged should offer catharsis. Instead, they sound suffocating. By album's end, he's strumming an acoustic, howling "Am I alone in here?" Some lighter-waving at an arena near you should answer that.

ROBERT CHERRY
(RS 910 – November 28, 2002)