By Madison Dymond ’16

The popular Chicago-based alternative rock band “Chevelle” released their sixth album, titled “La Gárgola,” on April 1.  This ten-song, high-energy album is Chevelle’s most complex and unique one yet.

The phrase ‘La Gárgola’ is Spanish for The Gargoyle, which is the perfect title for the album. The dark songs on the album evoke an atmosphere that is scary and horror-movie-like. Gargoyles are, in the words of lead vocalist and guitarist Pete Loeffler, “creepy and cool,” which describes the album perfectly.

Loeffler’s voice is very unique in the way that it creates the dark, aggressive tone needed for the album while still being smooth. His voice matches the heavy guitar and drum emphasis demonstrated on the album.

Chevelle has a very specific and different sound, and there are not many bands to which they can be compared. “La Gárgola” is similar to Chevelle’s other albums such as “Wonder What’s Next” and “Sci-Fi Crimes,” but still has its own identity. For this album, Chevelle experimented with tools and effects they had never used before such as vintage amps and stomp boxes.

The album opens with “Ouija Board,” which begins with an eerie chiming sound which transitions into vocals and heavy guitar. This energetic and creepy song catches the listener’s attention and introduces the theme of the album: fantasy and horror. Songs five and nine, “Hunter Eats Hunter” and “Under the Knife,” are very edgy and haunting and seem to be about death. “The Damned” is the eighth song on the album and is about a zombie apocalypse.

Although most of the songs are meant to make the listener feel like they have been transported to another world where creatures lurk in the shadows at every turn, some of them take on real-world issues. Song three, “Take Out the Gunman,” depicts a scenario where someone is caught in the middle of a shooting. The song is inspired by the controversy over gun control and the many deaths caused by guns. The sixth song on the album, “One Ocean,” is about the pollution and damage that humans are causing to the ocean. It needs to be taken care of because “it’s our one ocean.” This is the slowest and calmest song on the album, which is perfectly placed right in the middle because it provides a break from the loud and rough sound of the other songs. It sounds like it could be a Coldplay song, which is a compliment.

The album closes with “Twinge,” another slow song but one that still has a very creepy feel to it. It is a great way to close the album, leaving the listener with the feeling of slowly drifting to a different world.

Chevelle’s “La Gárgola” has extremely unique and meaningful songs and is their best album yet. It is different in the most perfect way possible.