The opening track on Thinking, "The Clincher," reintroduces and continues the bland sound of the three Chevelle brothers. A building mid-tempo and swaggering riff backed by a simplistic, yet hard drum beat starts the track. The building riff is then layered by another guitar overdub and over-mixed bass lines. Once the "rocking out" is over, the song falls flat with the introduction of the vocals. For the next three-plus minutes, Chevelle tries to show its diversity by badly blending heavy moments with an "emotional" vocal presentation.
The lyrics in the opening verse of "Get Some," the album's next cut, effectively summarize this band: "I tried an idea for no reason."
During a musical shift on "Get Some," Chevelle blatantly rips off the famous machine-gun riff and beat from Metallica's "One." Attention Lars Ulrich: A much-needed bitch slap, lawsuit or both should be served up to these kids.
According to my watch, Chevelle's 15 minutes ran out more than a year ago, before they were granted a main-stage slot on Ozzfest. Then again, with pop culture being fickle the way it is, Chevelle will be forgotten before a third release ever surfaces.
