CHROME HELMET

On the surface, Michigan working-class heroes CHROME HELMET (named after a song by Detroit's BIG CHIEF, whose artist Mark Dancey supplies the cover here) seem like any other bunch of earnest lunkheads bashing out their quasi-original tunes in a shitty bar after a long week at their respective jobs. But step back for a second and really listen to what's going on here. The band is undeniably steeped in the heartland rock that no doubt poured out of every radio within earshot during their formative years. But there are a number of quirks that set CHROME HELMET apart, without removing them entirely from their environment – think of them as an impossibly good pub band (and hell, isn't AC/DC just an impossibly good pub band?).

The most obvious oddity in the band is the presence of two basses — one clean, one distorted. The clean bass of Ryan Skeels does a lot of wandering around under the truckload of riffing laid down by the guitar and distorted bass, adding subtle bits of extra melody. Then there's the vocals of Carl Wilson — for one thing, he sounds like a more tuneful Lou Koller from SICK OF IT ALL, and he belts out some pretty uplifting lyrics, adding a wrong-side-of-the-tracks edge to the band's meat-and-potatoes music.

It's arena rock, really, but filtered through what grunge and punk tapes made their way to the exurban wilds these guys call home. They never skimp on the choruses or the primal rockin' riffs, but they'll throw in a curve ball like a MISFITS "woah-oh-oh" singalong ("Westside") or a trippy extended TOOL breakdown in "The Good Rides" that ends up exploding into a furious finish. Then there's "Depleted", which almost could be a SICK OF IT ALL song, with its driving riff and hammering midtempo.

A band like CHROME HELMET is kinda born doomed, in terms of rock stardom at least. They're way too populist to be an underground phenomenon — they're hardwired to be an accessible, for-the-people type of band. But they're not hip or flashy enough to catch the ear of anyone who could take them to another level — they just go out there, roll up their sleeves, and deliver the rock and roll, and even though their peers are wearing out their tenth copies of "Cat Scratch Fever" and "La Sexorcisto" because the closest thing to for-the-people rock out there right now is fuckin' NICKELBACK, no record business type is gonna connect with something this bruising, hooky and from-the-gut.

CHROME HELMET will tangentially appeal to people into, say, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY, or maybe QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, but mostly they're a universal rock and roll band, in a time where people have forgotten how much we need those. They may never ascend to the heights they deserve, but you can be damn sure that if you walk into that shitty bar some weekend and they're throwing down, they'll make your ears ring, the beer taste that much better, and they'll make you walk out with your faith in rock and roll music completely reaffirmed. One of the unsung gems of 2006, for sure.