Bright as Blasphemy
Ask Chevelle vocalist and guitarist Pete Loeffler why the band decided to call their 10th album *Bright as Blasphemy* and he’ll essentially punt. “A big part of a writer’s job is to come up with cool-sounding shit,” he tells Apple Music. “Which is really hard to do, especially because so much has been taken. I hadn’t heard this one before.” If that seems like an evasive response, that’s because it is: Loeffler and his brother Sam (drums) are hoping the record speaks for itself. “Digging in and figuring it out is part of the fun,” he says. “Maybe drawing your own conclusions is the best part. I once read that when you look at a new painting, you should try to find something in it that you like, even if your first thought is that it’s not your particular style. It’s practice for being open-minded.” It’s unlikely that Chevelle fans will find *Bright as Blasphemy* to not be their style. The first two singles, “Rabbit Hole (Cowards, Pt. 1)” and “Jim Jones (Cowards, Pt. 2),” deliver the type of big riffs and soaring hooks the Chicagoland rock band has built its multiplatinum career on. Lyrically, both songs offer critiques of government, religion, and technology. “The way I see it, shouldn’t all three of those things be critiqued?” Pete says. “It’s important to be careful how much you trust and read on the internet. Searching for the truth is full of nasty craters to fall in.” The Jim Jones reference is especially poignant. The infamous cult leader convinced nearly a thousand of his followers to kill themselves (and their children) by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid in 1978. “It’s one of the biggest abuses of power by someone who brainwashed his people,” Pete says. “It’s a reminder for us to be careful about the people that we follow and idolize.” For *Bright as Blasphemy*, the Loeffler brothers decided to produce themselves after a four-album run with Joe Barresi at the helm. “We wanted to switch it up, and ultimately we wanted to use the tools we’ve learned in writing and recording and see where we would end up,” Pete says. “The recording took place over two years’ time, \[because\] it’s not always easy to tell if something is fully cooked and done when there’s nobody to take it away from you.”
Enduring Chicago alt.rockers Chevelle make it to a tenth album but still don’t find the magic dust