CHIMAIRA - The Infection
March 14, 2009, 15 years ago
(Ferret/Nuclear Blast)
Somewhere between Machine Head and Pantera, the only two North American bands of international renown (in the late ‘80s) at the time these Clevelanders got their start. Mark Hunter sounds like Rob Flynn fronting mid-tempo Rantera (think ‘I’m Broken’), and there’s a few surprises, usually reserved for intros/outros, apart from an instrumental finale, ‘The Heart Of It All’. The ten songs segue almost seamlessly from one to the next, beginning with the Middle Eastern-flavoured guitar/cello (?) ‘The Venom Inside’. Snippets of clean, double-tracked vocals (as opposed to the usual shouts) can be heard, albeit briefly, on ‘Coming Alive’; the whispered voice of ‘Impending Doom’ eventually breaks loose, as does the intensity. Clean guitars cut through the heavier ‘On Broken Glass’, while ‘Destroy & Dominate’ is nearly death grind, far afield from the crushingly slow, staccato, circle pit rhythms heard elsewhere. The promo burned CD included a trio of untitled “bonus” material, including a punky run-through! The domestic release date is April 21st.
