Chevelle - Niratias

Chevelle Niratias cover
Chevelle
Niratias
Epic
2021
8
“Nothing is real and this is a simulation”! That’s the long form title of a fantastic new album from Chicago hard rockers Chevelle. “Niratias” is their 9th studio album over the course of their over 25 year career, and they are great as ever.
 
With Pete’s awesome riffage, and Sam’s solid drumming, the brothers Loeffler have another amazing album on their hands that is sure to be a hit with Chevelle fans old and new alike.
 
The album opens somewhat ominously with “Verruckt”, which means mad, insane, raving, etc., and you certainly get that feeling heading into this science fiction themed journey that you are about to go through. Just by the song titles you can see that you are traveling through the galaxy, on your way to deep space. Especially with the next two song titles being “So Long, Mother Earth” and “Mars Simula”. The latter of the two, “Mars Simula”, is my personal favorite on the album.
 
“Sleep the Deep” is an interesting interlude that utilizes a music box, which emulates a ticking clock at points. Coupled along with the faint galloping guitar riff, it’s almost unsettling in tone.
 
“VVurmhole” is another quick interlude later on in the album, it’s only 20 seconds, but you get the feeling of hitting a wormhole and traversing across space and time.
 
Most people have heard “Self Destructor” by this point as it was the first single off of the album. This is another amazing song on the album, it has a super memorable riff, and the vocal melody couldn’t fit any better. Make sure you catch the music video for this one too, it has a great men in black/alien theme to it.
 
“Peach” is a pretty juicy song. With its more hard-edged riff and vocal delivery it’s one that for sure gets your head moving along with the beat and just losing yourself in the music and the moment.
 
Things slow down a bit when you get to the more ballad-like “Endlessly”. It’s a ballad in the sense of how Chevelle writes the “softer” songs. It really reminds of “Bend the Bracket” off of “This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In)”. Sometimes adding in a slower track near the end of an album can really kill the momentum of a great album. Not in this case though. It almost feels like the story is really coming to a peak and about turning a corner to better days.
 
The album closes out with “Lost in Digital Woods”, which ends the album as ominously as it started. Lots of piano, and atmospheric synths, and the reading of what almost sounds like a diary entry in a space traveler’s journal. It ends with the phrase “I’ll never tell you why”, and fades out, before silence arrives, and then you hear distant, heavily distorted guitars. Then everything fades out, and your journey is complete.