“Mars Simula” was the last of five singles to be released from Chevelle's ninth studio album “Niratias”, and both debuted on May 1st, 2021. This record always felt like the sequel to “Sci-Fi Crimes” if it'd been a concept album, but “Niratias”, unlike the band's past records, is totally a concept album track to track. Themes covered in this effort are interstellar travel, loss and the past.
Pete said in many interviews about taking an interest in Elon Musk's mission to Mars. He shared a bit of this sentiment with Blabbermouth after the album dropped in 2021.
“I love the idea of the cosmos and I love Carl Sagan and Elon Musk and Neil deGrasse Tyson and all these people that look beyond and look to the future. Getting off this planet is part of that future if we can do it. It's funny when you started to delve into it how difficult that really is. How are you gonna deal with radiation out in a spaceship for nine months or longer than that? It's fascinating. It just made its way into the music."
“Pete previously told ‘Loudwire Nights’' about the overall lyrical direction of ‘Niratias’: ‘It has a lot of space to it, a lot of interstellar travel to it. You've got Elon Musk trying to get to Mars and that was completely fascinating to me so when I write lyrics, it's just kind of made its way in there. As you'll see with the cover, it's sort of space themed as well.’”
“‘Niratias’ bowed in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200. It debuted at No. 9, and was the first new release to chart within the Top 10 in over three weeks. In addition, ‘Niratias’ achieved several other accolades. The LP impressively debuted at No. 1 on several Billboard charts, including Rock Album, Alternative Album, Hard Music, Overall Album, Digital Album and Internet Album. ‘Self Destructor’, the album's acclaimed lead single, also reached the summit of the Active Rock radio chart this week, marking Chevelle's 12th number one single at the format.”
