Review: Chevelle – “La Gárgola”

Almost two decades into their career, the hard rock trio Chevelle has released their seventh studio album, La Gárgola (Spanish for The Gargoyle, if you were wondering). La Gárgola was released on April 1st, 2014, and I haven’t been able to stop listening to it since. The album was produced by Joe Barresi, who also worked with Chevelle on Hats Off to the Bull. This album is a completely different experience from any other Chevelle album, while keeping their signature sound intact.

La Gárgola is much darker and much more aggressive approach to their music, with notable experimentation on all instruments and vocals. You can tell how dark the album is just by song titles, such as “Take Out the Gunman”, “Choking Game”, “Hunter Eats Hunter”, and “Under the Knife”. From the listening perspective, you can tell where the album is heading from Pete Loeffler’s first line in “Ouija Board,” where he screams, “Are you up for anything?” Hopefully, you are.

Unlike other Chevelle albums, La Gárgola has heavy experimentation on guitar, which is much heavier and distorted. You can hear a lot of this new guitar style on the song “Hunter Eats Hunter.” Also, this album has focused on a lot of more ambient parts, with less emphasis on the vocals and more on instrumentation. This is notably apparent in the album closer, “Twinge,” which revolves around an intricate drum beat and a distinct bass pattern. With that being said, Pete’s vocals have never sounded better. His vocals are the perfect combination to balance out the dark sound this album brings.
With a band that formed in 1995, you would imagine that they would have found their signature sound and stuck with it throughout all of their albums. With the release of La Gárgola, you’ll realize that this is not the case. Instead of releasing an album that everyone expected, Chevelle thought outside of the box and showed that they would not stagnate. Their sound grows with every album, and this release shows just how far they will strive to release a fresh new album unlike anything else they have ever released. Keeping that in mind, they have also kept the elements that make them Chevelle, with all songs being extremely catchy and fun to listen to, along with their underlying deep emotion and meaning to each song.

      La Gárgola should be a lesson to all bands, showing that there is always room to grow and expand your sound. Chevelle shows us that age does not matter, and this album is just as alive as their others. La Gárgola is unique, and stands out as one of the best rock albums of 2014 so far. If you wanted an album that is comparable to Wonder What’s Next and Vena Sera, you got it.
My personal favorites off the album are “Take Out the Gunman”, “Jawbreaker”, and “Choking Game”.

TNF Rating: 9/10

– Evan Lurie