Author: Sandi Sadar Šoba
Artist: Chimaira
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release: 2007
Call them whatever you like, but these guys are anything but disposable pop fodder catering only to the commercial demands of the music industry. The lineup has changed a lot. Members came and went, and thanks to internal frustrations the band was already on the brink of splitting for good more than once. Also thanks to the greedy appetites of their label up to 2006, RoadRunner Records, which took a lot from them and gave painfully little. In that time they patched things up with former drummer Andy Herrick, who left the band back in 2002. They had a few jams together and realized the energy between them was intense, that they could build a new concept, make new music, and find a new label. The solution came in the form of Ferret Records, a subsidiary of Nuclear Blast Records, which gave them a badly needed financial transfusion and, even more importantly, total creative freedom and artistic backing. The Cleveland heavy metal beast Chimaira was able to rise from the near-dead and bare its teeth even more decisively in the form of its fourth full-length, Resurrection.
And that’s despite the fact that metal, especially the modern kind, is hardly in short supply these days. What’s more: since it has become more than just lucrative business, a small sea of bands has sprung up who think all it takes is throwing on black, screaming into a mic, and scraping at guitar strings with no real concept, then just counting the cash. With Resurrection, though, you actually hear more than just the look. You hear a concept, an idea and, most importantly, quality music. How else would you start a record if you don’t first say a decent goodbye to the past, draw a line, and find a positive foundation for the steps ahead? The song ‘Resurrection’ is a farewell to RoadRunner’s hell. “Free at last/ Finally tasting hapiness/ Five years of hell for nothing/ Trapped inside the minds of failures…”. A high-voltage jolt of energy kicks off resolute and steely. Arnold and Devries serve up precisely measured barrages of guitar fury, nicely backed by Herrick’s surgically precise drumming and the uncompromising guttural vocals of lead slaughterer Mark Hunter. If the previous record sounded a bit claustrophobic, it becomes clear right away that the guys have gone for a more epic approach and written songs you can remember really easily and naturally. The phenomenal run that follows proves it. ‘Pleasure In Pain’ shows with undiminished determination and speed that the arsenal of what Chimaira have to offer has only grown in that time and that they’re done with any creative crisis – if anything, they’re in full bloom. ‘Worthless’ rattles off resistance and revolt in a hardcore, metalcore way and settles scores aggressively with everything worthy of contempt. From specific people to institutions. ‘Six’ slows the rush down a bit and balances out the record. Epic and gorgeous. About the demonic allure of death and destruction, which is left undefined as either positive or negative. After a razor-sharp first part we rise again above the horizon, where Arnold’s addictive, sweet guitar drags us. Only so that Hunter, after we’ve glimpsed the sun, finishes us off for good and the closing repeating riff slowly sings itself out. Much more concretely, after an almost Mexican intro, the brutal discourse of the socially critical ‘No Reason To Live’ flares up. Addiction, poverty, collapse on one side, and the outlines of wealth somewhere far off on the other side of misery. ‘Killing The Beast’ is a hint, a call to pick yourself up and not rot in apathy. A call for revolution, rebellion and settling scores. A call of hope, this time wrapped in the hellish colors of violence. And the bond is steel. The link between a person and the world around them is addiction. ‘The Flame’ takes as its motif the total perversion of a serial rapist and killer. Alongside it unfolds the story of a hidden fate with no hope, trapped, the final destination already chosen and set. Man is a god to man. Man is an executioner to man. Obsession, madness and regret that comes too late… ‘End It All’, on the other hand, continues the story of the music business and the lives of musicians. About the state of mind in which Chimaira, too, were fading away before their resurrection. Hunter describes his memories of the slave-driver relationship between artist and the demands of the business lucidly and without mincing words: “Another show another state another country / It’s always been the same/ Commanding troops just like a general / Leading the warriors in the battle / Pathetic isn’t it / After all these years still not content…”. ‘Black Heart’ screams of dehumanization and a longing to return to a natural state and happiness. Almost in vain and with hope lost. The solution can also be sought in shortcuts to your own numbness and self-destruction, which ‘Needle’ deals with in connection, Hunter’s dictation of emptiness, alienation and gradual fading, which gets cut off all at once. The darkness is nicely rounded out and wrapped up in the stormy pessimism of the pompous finale – ‘Empire’. Like hearing Dimmu Borgir with balls. Soon the pomp morphs into a rampaging beast that, besides melodic death metal, also smells of old-school thrash. The curtains fall. Old worlds are destroyed, and dehumanization has never, or at least not in a long time, sounded so sweet and brutally direct. And from the ashes of the old, only an even more magnificent image of a distant future can take shape.
After listening to Resurrection you’re left with a feeling of power, vitality and a charge of energy that drains away very slowly, so I warmly advise against any extra caffeine while listening. In this year’s metal offering, this is undoubtedly one of the first gorgeous pearls to satisfy even the most demanding and refined metal taste. And the year has only just begun. Just imagine what the harvest will look like toward the end of the year… The picky can get their pick too, in the form of the high-octane record from Cleveland phenomenon Chimaira. Verdict: beyond all expectations, finally a bit of genuine, no-pretense metal again. On a Richter scale of speaker volume, measured from one to ten, the guys deserve at least a full eleven for their conceptual richness and quality sound!
Line-up
Rob Arnold – lead guitar
Matt Devries – rhythm guitar
Andy Herrick – drums
Mark Hunter – vocals
Jim Lamarca – bass
Chris Spicuzza – keyboards, vocals
Production
Jason Suecof
Tracklist
1. Resurrection
2. Pleasure In Pain
3. Worthless
4. Six
5. No Reason To Live
6. Killing The Beast
7. The Flame
8. End It All
9. Black Heart
10. Needle
11. Empire
ALBUM LENGTH: 51:43
