Nü metal villains, Coal Chamber, has defiantly clawed its way back into the metal mainstream after a 13-year hiatus with its comeback album, Rivals. Given Coal Chambers’ past calamities (heavy drug use, on-stage fights, rumors of breakups and several show cancellations), not many people — including the band themselves —thought a reunion would ever be possible. 

However, the reunited clan, consisting of tattoo-throated frontman Dez Fafara (who also fronts extreme metal band DevilDriver), guitarist Miguel “Meegs” Rascón, drummer Mikey “Bug” Cox and bassist Nadja Peulen, have created one of their best records to date. Although there’s no animosity between band members these days, the foursome didn’t just jump back into it blindly; they took slow, calculated steps. It started as early as 2006 when Meegs and Fafara began speaking to each other again after several years of silence. 

“It was a very long process,” Fafara said about the band’s reformation. “We started to talk in 2006, and in 2009 — a lot of people don’t know this — but we actually demoed two songs. But listening back to those songs, it didn’t feel refreshing enough. So we went out and toured the world in 2012; we started out with Soundwave in Australia, which is an amazing festival. From there, we had a good time and it became apparent (to get back together). We realized you can pretty much only have a reunion once, so if we were actually going to have any chance of getting back together and making things happen, we’d have to come up with (new) music.”

Not many bands get a second chance. But in all actuality, Fafara happily declares this reformation and new album is indeed a second chance.

“If you ever get a (second) chance to make up with somebody that you fell out with; an old love, an old friend or an old boss that fired you rightly so and you wanted to walk in and say, ‘Thanks man for firing me because of what you did, I got my shit together,’ you should do it. Over the years we didn’t speak for a very long time. Everything has been cool, so people should hear this and go out of their way and try to make that effort, because it does feel good in the end.”

And that’s gotta feel good. Especially when the listener gets the feeling that the band had a damn good time while recording Rivals. 

“We get in the rehearsal room and we laugh so hard we barely get anything done because we have such a good time,” Fafara enthused. “And that’s really what it’s all about. We’ve buried the hatchet and got back to it and we’re having a great time. I’m watching people’s lives get better; Meegs is married and Mikey has a little baby boy and he’s sober. And that’s a big deal. It’s become real fun.”

Rivals captures that trademark Coal Chamber sound with similarities to its first album, while also possessing a fresh, updated sound that holds up well to today’s modern metal standards.

“All three records that we made — the first one, second one and Dark Days — are all so much different from each other that we never had a formula; we have a signature sound,” Fafara said. “But we knew we didn’t want to be part of any ’90s throwback record or any nostalgic trip. Part of the reason we didn’t get back together in 2009 is because the music we were making sounded like older Coal Chamber, but we all wanted to do something fresh that it took this long to make that happen.”

Naysayers of the nü metal scene or bands such as Coal Chamber who ruled the roost back in the day might want to make an exception for Coal Chamber 2015. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they deserve a place in metal history for not only paving the way, but in some cases, riding the wave with some of the major shakers in the scene at the time, some who are still as current now as they were in the nineties, as Fafara points out.

“Look at some of the biggest metal bands on the planet that are nü metal or bands that were coming up in that scene at the time; Slipknot, Korn, Deftones, System Of A Down. What makes it (nü metal) current is that good music is good music. I guess people are hearkening back to that, or they’re looking for something different. They’re definitely getting it with a band like Coal Chamber and what we came up with on Rivals is a fresh, new take.”

On Rivals, the band delivers 13 blistering tracks, including the riot-inducing ”Suffer in Silence,” which features Industrial metal pioneer Al Jourgensen of Ministry. “He’s been a long time friend and he’s one of those guys that I really respect,” Fafara said of Jourgensen. “He said he understood the lyrics to "Suffer In Silence” and he wanted to sing on it. The thing that was incredible was seeing Al with his signature Ministry sound in my studio laying a track on my record at my house. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

Coal Chamber will finish out the month of May with a mini UK tour, and according to Fafara, the London show has already sold out. From there, the foursome will embark on a summer tour with Fear Factory, starting July 24th. Although DevilDriver’s not done yet, it’s on a short break while Coal Chamber does its thing, but will have a new album in the pocket by Christmas with a tentative release date for mid-to-late 2016. Fafara concludes by summing up Coal Chamber’s past difficulties, but also what positives await them in the future.

“After 13 years of being apart; after all of that completely crumbling on top of gold records and everything else that was going on with us, it was affecting our families as well,” he said. “It was difficult. But we’re hearing a lot of great positive feedback (about Rivals) and that’s always a good thing after working hard. The main thing is, I wanted to be a part of the music they were writing, and I knew that we could do something good.”