Vena Sera

The year 2007 is shaping up to possibly be a fantastic year for modern rock fans. The first major alt-metal release of the year is Chevelle's Vena Sera. Their previous album, "This Type of Thinking(Could Do Us In)", was regarded as their weakest album. "Vena Sera", thankfully, gets the band back on track and pointed in the right direction. Vena Sera is in my opinion, their second-best album, behind "Wonder What's Next".

There are major differences in this album when compared to Chevelle's previous three offerings. First off, Joe Loeffler is gone as bassist. After a falling out with his brothers, he was replaced by Dean Bernardini, a brother-in-law to the Loeffler brothers. The other two brothers, Sam and Pete, are back in action on this CD. When you think about it, Chevelle puts out a very powerful sound for only having three playing members, each of which play bass, guitar, and drums.

Secondly, Pete Loeffler makes heavy use of voice synthesizers on this album, something which was hardly ever used on previous albums.

Thirdly, and unfortunately, Chevelle has chosen to continue cursing on this album, something which they started doing on their last album. All the profanity on Vena Sera is on the song "Humanoid". First, Pete sings that "you're full of s**t," then goes on to say "so f***ing shallow." Now whether he is actually saying the F word or just "frikking" has yet to be determined, as that word is not in the lyrics that come with the CD, but believe me, it is definitely on the album. The album does not have a Parental Advisory label on it, which makes me believe that this may be a recording error of some sort.

The Review:

Vena Sera gets back to the roots of Chevelle, in a sense. Gone is the evil-sounding guitar of "This Type of Thinking...," it has been replaced by the same good, heavy-sounding guitars of "Wonder What's Next."

Right off the bat, the opening salvo "Antisaint" makes it be known that Chevelle is back and ready to open a can of whoop a** on somebody. The opening guitar riff would make any fan of Chevelle's earlier "Family System" and "Wonder What's Next" guitar riffs smile very widely. Again, the guitar sounds very similiar to the ones used on those very songs, the deep,throaty roars of "The Clincher" are long forgotten. "Antisaint" ranks as one of Chevelle's best heavy songs.

The 2nd track off the album, "Brainiac,"(originally named "One Cell") is a quality offering, with a new sythesized guitar sound for Chevelle. Ironically, this song is perceived as a parting shot at Joe Loeffler, who left the band before Vena Sera was recorded.

After two great opening tracks, Vena Sera enters a lull, because the 3rd,4th, and 5th songs on the album, "Saferwaters", "Well Enough Alone", and "Straight Jacket Fashion" are some of the weaker songs on the album. "Well Enough Alone" was released as the first single, and while it made good progress on the charts (placing 5th on the Mainstream rock charts), the song just sounds too much like a forced effort that was made at making a hard, yet radio-friendly rock tune.

However, the sixth song, "The Fad", is one of Pete Loeffler's best use of his high-pitched screaming technique. Along with a great drumbeat by Sam Loeffler, Pete also uses a guitar riff that fits his screaming of the chorus very well. This song is essential Chevelle, it combines all of Chevelle's uniqueness, their hard rock sound, and Pete's ability to both sing and scream.

Then comes the low point of the album, "Humanoid". The first half of the song is great, then it spirals downward into a empty abyss. Too many things going on at once, the second half almost sounds like an entirely different song.

The next two songs, "Paint The Seconds" and "Minutes to Midnight" are both good songs, with the opening voice sythesizer on "Minutes to Midnight" making Pete sound like Ville Valo from the love-metal band HIM. Totally unexpected, to say the least.

The final two songs on Vena Sera are some of Chevelle's best work to date. "I Get It", and my personal favorite track on the whole album, "Saturdays", are just very well made rock songs. They aren't the heaviest songs on the album, which is another thing that is different about this album; there are no light ballads on this album. Usually Chevelle closes out their albums with acoustic ballads, yet on Vena Sera, they ditch the old method in favor of continuing the harder-edge overall sound of the entire album. I really do hope that "Saturdays" is released as a single, because it is truly a Chevelle masterpiece. Pulsating, yet not throbbing, drumbeats are present through-out the entire track, and it really showcases Sam Loeffler's continuing mastering of the drumset.

Vena Sera is definitely a must-listen for any Chevelle fan, and is representative of Chevelle's original sound as a whole.

Best Songs:

Antisaint

Brainiac

The Fad

I Get It

Saturdays

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars