Album Review

Chimaira - The Age of HellChimaira – The Age of Hell

Now Chimaira have been a problem child so to speak for a few years now; many different line-up changes, disappointing releases and cancelling UK tours for various reasons. It’s safe to say that the original interest in the band over on this side of the pond is rapidly declining with each lost tour and each album release, so with a new album and a new tour they really need to pull something out of the bag to rekindle the hype. Whilst debut release “Pass Out of Existence” was extremely promising and follow up “The Impossibility of Reason” was their best release to date; there ends the excitement, “Chimaira” and “Resurrection” had a few great songs on them but weren’t the best as overall albums and then “The Infection” was a complete dud, opting for a more sinister slow paced edge.

The album was released for free with the latest edition of Metal Hammeras an obvious marketing ploy to get people to actually take notice in the band again alongside a string of UK dates to try and reignite the bands career which is a good plan. However none of this will matter if this album isn’t a return to form so let’s get to that. Opener “The Age of Hell”musically is terrific; it’s aggressive, heavy, quick and chaotic which is a great start however the vocals let it down because the lyrics just don’t fit they seem forced in and aren’t catchy. They do try to retain the style from “The Infection” infused with the “Impossibility of Reason” era and sometimes it does work in the case of “Year of the Snake”,“Clockwork” and “Time is Running Out” but it goes too far with“Beyond the Grave” and “Powerless”.

Here we are! “Born In Blood” is what I’ve been waiting to hear this entire album, its exactly what I expect of Chimaira; extremely aggressive, high octane, quick God damn metal! The breakdown towards the end as well is the heaviest section of music I think the band has ever produced; this song is the only one of its kind on this album, I mean “Trigger Finger” and“Scapegoat” are pretty heavy but just not on par with “Born In Blood”.

Apart from these songs there’s a 1 minutes interlude (“Stoma”) and a 6 minute instrumental called “Samsara” which is really just a track of guitarists showing off and some pretty impressive displays of musical talent. That concludes the album; it hasn’t been really the album of the decade or the turning point in Chimaira’s career, it’s not a triumphant return to form but hey it’s a start, if the band takes all critique given and owns the stage over here next March then we might begin the return.

4/5

Review by James Webb

 Band Members

Rob Arnold
Austin D'Amond
Matt DeVries
Mark Hunter
Emil Werstler
Sean Zatorsky
 Track Listing
1. The Age of Hell
2. Clockwork
3. Losing My Mind
4. Time Is Running Out
5. Year of the Snake
6. Beyond The Grave
7. Born in Blood
8. Stoma
9. Powerless
10. Trigger Finger
11. Scapegoat
12. Samsara
 Band Related Links
Chimaira Myspace
 Review Score Code
- Top Cheese
- Brilliant
- Pretty damn good
- Ok I guess
- What Was That?