Chore

The Coastaline Fire (Sonic Unyon)
by Martin Popoff

Ontario’s Chore are now onto their third album, and the sound has evolved into a sleek, intellectual statement-bridging satellite grunge (Minneapolis sound, Jane’s Addiction, Nudeswirl, I Love You, The Jesus Lizard, Liquid Jesus, Firehose) to the more sublime and arty side of mathcore or popcore, maybe things like At The Drive-In, driving things even moreso enigmatic with a straight Canadian alternative vibe like, say, heavy I Mother Earth. But with Fudge Tunnel’s Alex Newport producing, things are kept quite explosive, Chore matching the noise terrorist jag for zig with some of the freshest hard rock I’ve heard in years. “American Machinist,” “Aloha,” and “The Hitchhiker” in particular are positively gorgeous, using heavy guitars in sweet yet dissonant ways, Chore coming up with vocal and guitar melody combinations that just might save rock’n’roll now that At The Drive-In have split up and The Strokes have hit the hype wall. But I can’t talk about this in heavier terms than that because Chore ain’t there, with say, 2/5ths of this album being quite mellow and/or quiet and/or acoustic. Still, mellow and heavy parts all, remind me – in a metal world – of Katatonia, Opeth, Into Eternity, and probably most strikingly, the new Radioheading Anathema. Two bucks short of a ten spot due to not enough power chords spread over too short a time (47 minutes).
(PO Box 57347 Jackson Station, Hamilton, ON L8P4X2)