gunshow86de
Beef Jerky Time
Damn, I forgot how many good riffs there are in this song.
Where are the Chimaira fans?
- Thread starter Manurack
- Start date
LostTheTone
Elegant Djentleman
I'm a huge Chimaira fan, even the early POOE days. That album has Split, it has Taste My, it has Painting White to Grey, and Dead Inside and Severed. It's a good album, fucking fight me.
Thing is, even the less awesome albums still have a little secret sauce to me. Something that speaks to me. Rob always brings the riffs, Mark has a great voice, and they have this quality that drives things forward.
There's also some really good creative decisions that makes (most) of their albums feel coherent. Little leitmotifs from Implements of Destruction and Samara that show up throughout their respective albums and finally pay off. Six somehow feels like a much shorter song than And Justice For All (for example), and for a 9 minute opus in the middle of an otherwise tight album it keeps the flow quite well.
Also, Rob Arnold is where I got my taste for guitars with only one pickup. And for that, I thank him.
Thing is, even the less awesome albums still have a little secret sauce to me. Something that speaks to me. Rob always brings the riffs, Mark has a great voice, and they have this quality that drives things forward.
There's also some really good creative decisions that makes (most) of their albums feel coherent. Little leitmotifs from Implements of Destruction and Samara that show up throughout their respective albums and finally pay off. Six somehow feels like a much shorter song than And Justice For All (for example), and for a 9 minute opus in the middle of an otherwise tight album it keeps the flow quite well.
Also, Rob Arnold is where I got my taste for guitars with only one pickup. And for that, I thank him.
HoneyNut
Regular
- Joined
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I was really into Impossibility of Reason. Along with the Great Southern Trendkill, I probably heard this album the most in HS. I soon discovered Arch Enemy, Nevermore, Meshuggah and Dimmu in MTV Headbangders Ball 2 compilation CD.
slslipfilth
SS.org Regular
Yeah, my bad...just relooked and its the last album where they both left.
But felt Age of Hell was kind of a let down
LostTheTone
Elegant Djentleman
I completely disagree - The Infection and the self-titled are the ropey ones to my ear, and Age Of Hell fooking shreds.
Different strokes, right?
Ataraxia2320
SS.org Regular
Couldnt agree more, that and the infection were snooze fests for me in comparison to their stronger albums. I still rock them every now and then for the monster riffs and groove.
LostTheTone
Elegant Djentleman
Yeah, they are all good in the general run of metal albums, but they don't live on my phone the way that others have. Venom Inside is still a great track, but the rest I'm less keen on. Compared to Age Of Hell which I find to be an absolute belter. It's not quite on the level of Impossibility of Reason or Resurrection but it's a very tight, consistent album. And Clockwork is baller, but bafflingly was not even a single release.
duffbeer33
SS.org Regular
I still listen to that album from time to time, I like a lot of it. Think it was the only album they did in drop A tuning and more enjoyable then most nu metal at that time. I do think they overdid the use of electronic sounds at some parts in the album.
LostTheTone
Elegant Djentleman
Yeah, that's a fair review. They were still kinda figuring out how to get those industrial elements into the music. It's actually hugely impressive how big a step up it was to Impossibility of Reason, which gets it spot on IMHO. POOE has a bunch of rough edges, and it's still good, but it's not quite the final form of their sound.
And yes, it's Drop A I believe, which still weirds me out a bit because to me that's just kinda begging for a seven string and yet I don't think Rob ever played one on the albums. Taste My was about the first song I learned on my seven in A standard and it plays fine, nothing weird at all. Wonder if there was ever a reason for that? Personally I wouldn't even want to think about Drop A on a 25.5" neck, that sounds horrible to play.
gunshow86de
Beef Jerky Time
Rob and Matt had some nice ESP custom shop 7s. I've seen them live many times and they always brought them out for POoE songs. Here's one of Rob's.
LostTheTone
Elegant Djentleman
Oooh I didn't know that - Ty for the link, that's nice to see.
gunshow86de
Beef Jerky Time
Now that I think about it, I think they started using baritone Viper 6's for the live drop-A stuff around the time self-titled album came out. I looked up some live vids from around that time and it seems right. I think they even just started playing the older stuff in drop-C after a while so they didn't have to bring extra guitars.
Manurack
Nunavut Inuk
You beat me to it. I remember seeing a video where Rob showed his collection of guitars and he was surprised that ESP gave him an archtop 7 string, something he's not used to playing.
Manurack
Nunavut Inuk
I think Matt DeVries' signature viper was a 27" scale used in drop C. Rob's signature super Strat was a 24.75" scale.
Rob's signature guitar was classy and sexy as fuck.
I actually remember that one member here (can't remember his name) but he bought one and wanted to install a neck pickup, an EMG 85 or 60. He took the pickguard off and he was surprised that there was no neck pickup cavity
gunshow86de
Beef Jerky Time
You can see them tracking Pass Out of Existence on the Dehumanizing Process DVD. At 11:20, Rob is playing a Schecter 7 string. I feel like there is video or pics or their original rhythm guitarist playing a Universe too, but my memory is sort of hazy. Also re-watching this, I remember how much the band actually hated Pass Out of Existence. It almost got them dropped from Roadrunner.
LostTheTone
Elegant Djentleman
Correct - And all of Robs "Strat with an EMG81 and nothing else" guitars are sheer class. For those of you who are hoping to build their own, it's actually crazy hard to find a Strat pickguard with just one humbucker cut out, or at least not at a reasonable price. I had to buy one from Japan and it didn't have standard screw holes which was... Odd.
Yeah, I've heard they had a lot of struggles, but looking back it's hard not to think it was a mix of pressure and the era they were in. Bunch of young guys recording their first proper record with a label getting antsy and just trying to complete the damn thing when amazing metal albums are dropping all around.
Manurack
Nunavut Inuk
Remember when EMG pickups first came out with metal pickup covers? Rob has a silver EMG 81 installed in one of his ESP guitars and that completed the classy look. Here he is playing the guitar in the music video for "Year of the Snake" when they hired Emil Werstler on bass guitar after Jim LaMarca left.
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Manurack
Nunavut Inuk
There was also quite a significant change in band members at the time they recorded The Age of Hell.
Andols Herrick was replaced by Austin D'Ammond, Jim LaMarca was replaced by Emil Werstler and Chris Specuzza was replaced by somebody else.
Then shortly after, Rob Arnold and Matt DeVries left. That point was the downfall of Chimaira. I didn't really care for the stuff that came after with Emil Werstler on guitars.
If Rob and Matt rejoined, I'd definitely buy another Chimaira album.
Andols Herrick was replaced by Austin D'Ammond, Jim LaMarca was replaced by Emil Werstler and Chris Specuzza was replaced by somebody else.
Then shortly after, Rob Arnold and Matt DeVries left. That point was the downfall of Chimaira. I didn't really care for the stuff that came after with Emil Werstler on guitars.
If Rob and Matt rejoined, I'd definitely buy another Chimaira album.
nikt
LACS Lover
LostTheTone
Elegant Djentleman
IIRC Matt DeVries left before Age of Hell, but yeah there were a lot of changes both before and after that album.
It's really really hard to evaluate how much impact any particular person has on a band, because we never really get to see how their creative process actually works. There's more songs that Mark gets sole credit for than songs he doesn't have a writing credit on. The primary credit for writing was always Mark and Rob together though, sometimes with others, but generally those two. I definitely think losing Rob hurt Crown of Phantoms, and kinda shows that Chimaira was a real band and not just "The Mark Hunter Project".
Personally, I would buy a new Chimaira album pretty much no matter what. And maybe that does make me a bit of a fanboy. Obviously the "classic" lineup (who were planning another A Very Chimaira Christmas show for 2020, so clearly can still work together) would be my first choice, but I would give The Mark Hunter Project another shot too. Why not? I'll keep buying Fear Factory albums as long as Dino keeps making them regardless of anyone else so *shrug*.
And, perhaps superstitiously... Every even numbered Chimaira album is an instant classic, and this would be an even numbered album so...
