2006-01-14
Chimaira is the third LP by Chimaira which blends Metalcore with Thrash Metal. The album shows progress, there's no doubt about it, and it's heavy from start to finish, but there's something about it I didn't like. The band hasn't decided yet what she really is. If it's Thrash Metal it needs to find that unique sound yet. If it's Metalcore and the like it needs to shorten the songs, because after three minutes it really starts to repeat itself, and the thought of another two minutes to hear really put me down.
Mark Hunter the vocalist opens the album as strong as he can with Nothing Remains. This song, he says, was written on the day Dimebag Darrell Abbott was murdered. Save Ourselves is just as heavy, and it has some epic lines in its chorus("we're stronger", which is probably true in light of the professionalism on display here). Inside The Horror that follows isn't special, but at least it moves along to the five-minute line better than the previous songs. Salvation uses backing vocals, which is original and nice, and with a minute to go the song turns into an instrumental with "Salvation" chants in the background, and that's also original and nice. Comatose is a fast and furious song, and in my view, one of the best here. Left For Dead displays aggressiveness, somewhere in the middle it's slowing down and right at the end speeds up again to finish the song. Everything You Love is one of the best examples to explain how great I Kevin Talley, Chimaira's drummer. It's a shame that the song is too long(again) and starts repeating itself at some point. The same can be said on the next song, Bloodlust, with the addition of pointing out the nice chorus and Rob's riffs on the guitar. Pray For All kicks off with an excellent drumming session, some impressive riffs join in and a marvelous double-bass is added from that point till the end of the song. The chorus breaks the usual beat, somewhere along the way we can find a decent solo, towards the end a march music, the kind of music a Power Metal band usually uses, and, to make a long story short, this gives Comatose a run for its money on the best song award. The last song, Lazarus, is the longest and it's about a suicide of a friend. All musical instruments work beautifully here(rhythm changes, nice riffs and solos, mean double-basses with professional drumming), but the thing that stands out the most is the use of backing vocals, which should have been more frequent in the album, in my opinion. The Gregorian-like backing sounds is a good idea as well. Although it is a bit long, the calm ending is a good finisher for the album.
If one wishes to talk about the musicianship here then Mark Hunter, the lead singer, puts on a good angry voice with the addition of a growl just where you need one, but his voice remains the same throughout the album, and that's a bit of a let-down when the song is too long. Rob Arnold and Matt Devries are the guitarists, and their solos are impressive. They control the rhythm and change it well in total cooperation with the drummer, Kevin Talley. Kevin is at his best here, and with perfect timing he goes from backing drums to a drum session or a rhythm-dictating double bass. Jim Lamarca's bass are in the background but you can feel them go along with the music. The samples and the keyboards of Chris Spicuzza are non-existent until the last two songs so I would rather not comment on him.
Nir Haviv
