It's a shame that any band who comes across as being hard and heavy sounding will almost automatically be labeled as "Nu-Metal," which is a category that includes more crappy bands than good ones (i.e.Limp Bizkit and Staind.) Chevelle, which is made up of brothers Pete, Joe, and Sam Loeffler, may be pretty hard and heavy sounding, but their sound is quite different from the typical purveyors of nu-metal and with one listen it's easy to tell that these guys actually have talent.

Their second album, Wonder What's Next, mixes the hard-hitting riffs of Helmet with the anger and lyrical style of Tool, making for a very crunchy, metallic yet accessible sound. The opener, "Family System," starts off with a mysterious vibe and then bursts into a crunching riff that lets us know what's about to come. After that, "Comfortable Liar" gives off an eerie yet interesting guitar-and-bass musical styling (complete with door creaks and hollowed drums) it's tracks like this that sets the band apart from other "Nu-Metal" hacks.

The next three songs are the radio-oriented favorites, but they happen to be the best songs on the album. You've got the Deftones-inspired "Send the Pain Below" (which kind of sounds like the Tones "Be Quiet and Drive"), the anguished "Closure" and the dark and screaming "The Red." I still never get sick of "Send the Pain Below" or "The Red" no matter how many times I hear them on the radio."Don't Fake This" has an impressive ricocheting snare drum beat during the verses, along with a screaming chorus, while "An Evening with Diablo" has incredible fast-paced drumming along with echoing vocals.

Perhaps one of the greatest heartbreaking and tear-jerking songs by a band of any genre is found in the last song on the CD, "One Lonely Visitor," which is an acoustic ballad that sounds like something Jonah Matranga from Far and One Line Drawing would have written (singer/guitarist Pete Loeffler's vocals sound almost identical to Jonah as well). It's tough not to scream along "Am I Alone in Here!!!" with the chorus. If you're looking for something heavy that isn't obscure in the style of hardcore or death-metal and isn't trendy and devoid of talent in the style of a lot of today's "Nu-Metal," then Chevelle's "Wonder What's Next" is the CD for you.