-=- SHGZ -=- * Shoegaze * Indie * Post-Rock * Grunge * Dream Pop * Psych-Rock * Ethereal * ARTIST..: Trauma Ray ALBUM...: Chameleon GENRE...: Indie STYLE...: Shoegaze, Grunge, Post Rock, Alternative Rock, Noise Rock STYLE...: Emo, Alternative Metal, Doomgaze, Post-Hardcore, Nu-Metal YEAR....: 2024 LABEL...: Dais COUNTRY.: USA PLACE...: Fort Worth, TX FORMED..: 2018 ENCODER.: LAME 3.100 -V 0 BITRATE.: 279 kbps avg QUALITY.: 44.1kHz / Joint Stereo SOURCE..: CD TRACKS..: 12 SIZE....: 96.60 MB URL..: https://www.facebook.com/traumaray https://www.daisrecords.com/collections/trauma-ray https://traumaray.bandcamp.com/album/chameleon https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/trauma-ray/chameleon https://boolintunes.com/reviews/album-review-trauma-ray-chameleon https://www.reddit.com/r/shoegaze/comments/1gbfe5l/trauma_ray_chameleon_discussion_thread https://louderthanwar.com/trauma-ray-chamaleon-album-review https://www.fwweekly.com/2024/10/23/changing-trauma-ray https://www.bandwerkmusic.com/trauma-ray-bandpage - TRACKLIST 1 Ember 4:17 2 Torn 3:36 3 Chameleon 3:12 4 Bardo 3:24 5 Bishop 3:37 6 Elegy 5:40 7 Drift 2:40 8 Breath 4:17 9 Spectre 3:53 10 Flare 1:11 11 ISO 5:32 12 U.S.D.D.O.S. 7:16 Total Playtime: 48:35 NOTICE: Track 8 title is incorrect on discogs: Correct is "Breath" even though the "t" might seem to look like a "c" on the cover. Track 11 title is incorrect on discogs: Correct is "ISO" even though the "I" might seem to look like an "F" on the cover. https://floodmagazine.com/179052/trauma-ray-chameleon-track-by-track https://traumaray.bandcamp.com/album/chameleon * Since first bonding over Slowdive at a Texas karaoke bar six years ago, musicians Uriel Avila and Jonathan Perez have grown trauma ray into Fort Worth s foremost flag bearer of crushing shoegaze. A five-piece rounded out by bassist Darren Baun, drummer Nicholas Bobotas, and guitarist Coleman Pruitt, the band s debut album, 'Chameleon,' captures their evolving sound at an apex of majestic devastation. A fusion of downer hooks, gauzy melancholia, and bulldozer riffs, the album heaves and crashes across 50 minutes of stacked amplifier alchemy. Lyrically the songs trace similarly lofty and brooding terrain; Avila says "The theme is death. And a chameleon, like death, can shape-shift in and out our lives in different forms." Chameleon opens with "Ember," dreamy and distant, alternately anthemic and apocalyptic, defeated and deafening. Lead single "Bishop" perfectly encapsulates trauma ray s depth and dimension, ripping out of the gate with the biggest, baddest, saddest wall of sound. Lyrics about being burnt at the stake and "tossed in the flame" float above a stop-start assault of precision distortion, eventually expanding into a lush, heavy, sorrowful end coda. "Spectre" is a mysterious, introspective dirge, envisioned as a "mellow, slowcore, Duster-thing," all feeling and heavy fuzz chords (with no lead guitar). Avila wrote it, "to be a hymnal" from the perspective of someone who won't let go - a ghost, an ex, a shadow self. Although the album is rich with subtleties, graceful lulls, and "breaths of air," the band s three guitar attack is its defining force, a power flexed to its peak on "Bardo." Perez s intentions were blunt: "I wanted to write a riff that was hard as fuck." The result is alternately mean and eerie, veering between noisy one string bends and surging headbang, mapping a middle ground between Unwound and early-Deftones. One of trauma ray s greatest gifts is their ability to make doomy, sledgehammer heaviness sound like an earworm, without production tricks or gimmicks: "Riff, verse, chorus, three guitar parts that s all you need." This quality is particularly apparent on the title track, a churning slab of amplifier worship, swirling chords, and heavenly, defeated vocals about not belonging, shape-shifting, and death ("A twisted face / Void of attention / An empty space / In your reflection"). "U.S.D.D.O.S" closes the album, swaying across seven minutes of grey skied guitar and haunted voice, subtly thickening as it deepens. Feedback and shrapnel gradually begin raining down, like a satellite disintegrating in the atmosphere. Titled as an acronym after a poem by Chilean writer Roberto Bola o that loosely translates to "a dream within a dream," the melody softens, smears, and then disappears, slowly swallowed by the gravity of eternal descent. 'Chameleon' is a masterpiece of craft, balance, melody, lyricism, and gravity, flexing a fresh vision of loud-quiet-loud architectures and the vertigo depths of blasted harmonics. From Slowdive to Nothing, to Hum and beyond, the band absorb and expand on their influences into a rare and dedicated alchemy. trauma ray's cinematic tempest is a gathering storm only just taking flight. * Fort Worth shoegaze quintet Trauma Ray finally returns with their first full-length album on Dais Records, Chameleon, which saw its release on October 25, 2024. This debut LP is made of 12 tracks running for 48 minutes. Chameleon epitomizes the sense of heavy shoegaze with strong underlines from Deftones and TAGABOW, combined with the introspective flair of Sunny Day Real Estate and the haunting depth of A Perfect Circle. Trauma Ray consists of Uri Avila on guitar/vocals, John Perez on guitar, Cole Pruitt on guitar, Darren Baun on bass, and Nick Bobotas on drums, who all make formidable contributions to the soundscape together. "Ember" opens up the album with a dark, hooky riff that brings the listener into a reflective heavy vibe that initiates an atmospheric journey. The second track is "Torn", an aggressive rhythm fully fit for live energy and bonded through relentless drumming and thickened walls of sound. The title track "Chameleon" presents this band most emotively. Avila's vocals reveal raw vulnerability, screaming "I can still see you" over crashing cymbals and guitars in a heartfelt nod to bands like Blue Smiley and Duster. Early singles "Bardo" and "Bishop" show Avila's evocative voice and his trauma-laden lyrics, rightly so as they are fan favorites. Each note embodies the Trauma Ray ethos of mournful introspection fused with explosive, immersive instrumental sound designed to be as intense live as it is on the record. "Elegy" introduces a slower tempo, but just as listeners are lulled, Perez and Pruitt bring back the distorted harmonics that define the band's take on shoegaze. On "Drift," the album turns toward pure instrumental ambiance. Perez aptly described it as "a song for an elevator ride into space," a moody, almost weightless soundscape that appropriately launches listeners beyond the earthbound themes of the record's previous tracks. Then, "Breath" plunges back into familiar territory with cascading drums and dueling guitars before easing into "Spectre," a standout that mixes melancholy, angst, and raw beauty. Opening with a beautiful riff, the poignancy of Avila's question, "Are you afraid of me?", resonates deep and makes "Spectre" a quintessential Trauma Ray anthem. "Flare" is a cool interlude after the heaviness of "Spectre," shimmering guitars leading into the returned intensity of "ISO," which throws the listener back to the core sound of the album. "U.S.D.D.O.S." closes out the record with seven minutes of dark guitar playing and haunting vocals, its title named for a Chilean poem that roughly translates to "a dream within a dream." The listener is left floating in a quiet state of contemplation during this finale, with poignant feelings of sadness and isolation captured in a remarkably moving fashion. Chameleon is a love letter to shoegaze-cohesive, with nods to genre influences like Failure, Slowdive, and HUM, yet thoroughly original and sincere. Trauma Ray has come into their own here and cements themselves as a formidable presence in modern shoegaze. Haunting layers, masterful harmonics, and a deeply resonant emotional core, Chameleon stirs as a debut that raises the bar high for what comes next. 10/10 - Chameleon is definitely one of the best releases of 2024, and shoegaze fan or not, this album's worth a listen. * - Interview: Jon Perez of Trauma Ray Talks 'Chameleon' - Despite being a choir and theater kid, I don't have a strong opinion about karaoke. I've been inebriated enough to indulge it from time to time, but my hot take on the artform is that it's best for those who aren't exactly great singers but who aren't afraid to make a fool out of themselves. Since I have made a 14-year side hustle out of finding music that is actively appealing to my ears, I prefer not to seek out bad music. However, I now have a favorite karaoke story to tell, and it's not even mine. Two dudes in Texas bonded over a love of Slowdive and Deftones, and the rest is now history. Trauma Ray, the resulting band, is the exception to my rule that shoegaze is best as a glaze rather than a cake: meaning shoegaze typically works as a second or third ingredient rather than the base (see post-rock, blackgaze). Even Deftones meets my criteria, since shoegaze is probably fourth in their hierarchy (underneath metal, art rock, and Chino sound horny). Trauma Ray sound like a Batman Light Beam for the terminally bummed, but instead, it's a melancholic reflection on the state of the world and an almost existential desire to find or create meaning. Guitarist Jon Perez shares that this debut, Chameleon, is about an end and a start: "For the most part this record deals with death in its many shapes and forms, and also the way life is ever fleeting throughout each moment, inevitably bringing each of us closer to our own end. Inescapably also our choices and actions throughout our lives that shape our past and future and the feelings and insecurities we face that come with being alive. We try and speak about these things while also remaining somewhat vague lyrically, and hope the overall mood in the instrumentation of each track gives off those kinds of feelings." * I finally got around to checking out the entirety of Chameleon, the long-awaited debut from Texas heavy-gazers Trauma Ray. I was skeptically pleased with the record's lead single "Bishop," but I'm happy to say that I enjoyed the full record more than I anticipated. Yes, the reference points they're playing with are plainly obvious (Nothing, Whirr, Deafheaven, Hum), though I think Trauma Ray are stronger songwriters than many of their style-over-substance contemporaries, and that makes Chameleon sound like a record that will hold its own well beyond the waning half-life of the American nu-gaze boom. While most fans are probably coming to Trauma Ray for ear-engulfing guitar barrages, I'm more interested in B-side cuts like "Breathe" and the Greet Death-y "Spectre," where the band open the windows of their dank, cavernous sound and allow some prettier ambience to waft in. The Slowdive circa Pygmalion trip-hop instrumental "Drift" and the delay-soaked interlude "Flare" are crucial breaks from the bludgeoning monotony, keeping me fully invested in the record's flow all the way through its seven-minute peak-scaler "U.S.D.D.O.S." The closer caught me off guard by never erupting into predictably gnashing chords, but instead growing to a gentle boil of burbling fuzz and then receding back down to a low heat simmer. It's simply one of the prettiest shoegaze songs I've heard in a long time, and I never expected to hear it from a band like Trauma Ray. Props. * - Rainbows in the Dark: trauma ray - Chameleon - Shoegaze is a complex genre that can float in and out of heaviness with ease. I love the versatility of it and the ever underlying dreaminess. trauma ray has mastered shoegaze and that layered, textured sound in their debut full-length album Chameleon. There is a mix of heavy, ethereal, grunge, pop-punk, instrumental, and more woven throughout that makes the album dynamic and captivating. The tracks gently float into the next creating a cohesiveness and a peaceful movement. The subject matter of the album is quite heavy and emotive but the overall provocation is introspection and ultimately catharsis. Chameleon is an album to fully immerse in. Singer/vocalist Uriel Avila while contributing to the writing of the album was heavily inspired by his background and escape from a devout Pentecostal community. Themes of guilt, purgatory, and the afterlife are easily picked up on and add to the emotional authenticity and complexity of Chameleon. The array of influences enhances the overall listening experience. The album opens with a catchy guitar melody before drums are introduced, some screeching feedback, and then the track fully comes to life. While "Ember" is a song of grief lyrically, the music is uplifting and holds more of a 90's alternative groove akin to Sunny Day Real Estate. The title track welcomes in some post-hardcore elements with a catchy bass-line and heavier riffs, but lighter airier vocals again embracing this contrast and stirring emotions as well as invoking reflection. A favorite track of mine is "Bishop" which is a faster paced song with heavier guitars and thick walls of sound acting as a release of energy. It is one of the more powerful songs on Chameleon and the first single released giving a perfect taste of what was to come. Halfway through comes "Drift," an instrumental piece that calms things down with swirling tones and almost sounds like dreamy elevator music. This offers a transition into the second half of the album where instead of focusing on death, grief, and mourning, it centers on remembrance, dreams, and light. "Spectre" comes shortly after, a slower, quieter track with haunting melodies and harmonies that eventually picks up to add some depth with guitars and a looming bass line. "U.S.D.D.O.S" closes everything out and spans just over seven minutes. The dreamy track slows things down and gives a steady tempo and sound that is easy to get lost in. This is one of my favorite releases of 2024. I absolutely love shoegaze and have followed trauma ray since their start in 2018 when the band released a self-titled EP. Chameleon is expertly crafted and involved with each minute offering something interesting and different enough to make each track notable. The album moves through emotions and sounds with ease, gently carrying listeners along. It is beautiful, haunting, relatable, and vibrant. I cannot recommend Chameleon enough because it fits into many categories and brought to mind several different bands and albums while still being something unique that stands strong on its own. Even more impressive is the fact that this is a debut full-length release from a newer band but I believe this well establishes their path and mark in the shoegaze scene. * It takes but one song live for Trauma Ray to convince you they are the real deal. The Texas-based rock band released their brilliant debut album "Chameleon" last year, which was criminally underappreciated and flew under the radar for most people. While it's easy to dismiss them as a Deftones clone at first, it's clear that the band is merely channeling the experimental nu-metal masters to forge a soundscape entirely their own. "Chameleon" presents a dreamy, tranquil expression that takes from post-hardcore bands like Basement or Title Fight and contrasts it with crushingly heavy distorted guitars and a crunchy nu-metal vibe that brings to mind bands like Chevelle, Taproot, and indeed, Deftones. It's a play on the classic quiet/loud dynamic, except instead of emo, the band delivers a haunting ambiance and soaring, atmospheric soundscapes with shoegaze references plastered all around. It is difficult to pick and highlight just one song off the record since it is the uniform expression and style that counts here. But "Torn" is like Title Fight trebleness combined with early-2000s Deftones melodies, while the title track contrasts silky-soft vocals with thick, punishing guitar distortion. "Bardo" lures you in with a heavy lead riff for the ages, before the ambient style takes over. It's music that's made for the sort of headbanging where you move from back-breaking right down to the floor in one slow, but deliberate movement. Trauma Ray's expansive guitars are made for the big stages. The vocals, which feel like they're purposefully pushed to the background as a sidenote to the bombastic guitars, create an additional mystique that'll surely elevate their reputation. The sheer density of their expression hits you like a brick wall each time and given how slowly the songs creep forward, there's an element of doom and gloom that ensures your interest is piqued at all times. "Chameleon" is a mammoth debut that dares to go back a couple of decades in terms of influences without sounding derivative. It's a fresh look at the haunting heaviness that always made Deftones so good, by injecting post-hardcore godhood into the mix. It's a familiar sound but one that sounds rejuvenating in 2025. - 8.5/10 -=- SHGZ -=- -=-=-==-=-=- Shoegaze is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the late 80s. The genre is very difficult to define, and it is even more difficult to evaluate music within it. Generally, the genre is characterized by its shimmering vocals, reverberating guitars, and textural distortion that create a tranquil, opaque feeling. ---==--==---