Chevelle

Chevelle writes heavy rock that leaves space inside it, building songs from a few tightly controlled riffs and letting the air around them do as much work as the distortion. Pete Loeffler sings with a coiled, deliberate delivery that stays legible even when the guitars thicken.

The band is a two-brother operation, Pete on guitar and vocals and Sam on drums, and that pairing has been the constant through a long run of records beginning in the late 1990s; the bass chair has passed through several hands around them. The obvious touchstone is Tool, in the shared taste for patient, odd-angled arrangements and heavy atmosphere, but Chevelle pares the approach down to something more compact, trading extended structures for songs that make their point and stop.

That restraint is the identity. The band has never chased a trend, and the catalogue holds together because it keeps doing one thing carefully rather than many things loudly.