Review Summary: While having its shortcomings, The Age of Hell is a solid Chimaira record and deserves to be heard at least once.
Chimaira was formed in 1998 and hails from Cleveland, Ohio. The Age of Hell serves as their sixth studio full length, released by eOne Music after serving their contract with Ferret Music/Nuclear Blast Records. Chimaira is...
Mark Hunter – Vocals
Rob Arnold - Lead Guitar
Matt DeVries – Guitar
Emil Werstler – Bass
Sean Z – Keys
Austin D'Amond – Drums
Featuring Guest Musician
Phil Bozeman of
Whitechapel on "Born in Blood"
Chimaira is a band known for their blend of 90s
Pantera-like groove with modern metalcore, which results in simple yet pounding riffs. The Age of Hell is no different, Rob Arnold and Matt DeVries riffs help compliment Mark Hunter's monstrous vocals here. Mark Hunter can be described as a defining feature of Chimaira's sound, he's the main creative force behind the band and the only original member from the 1998 incarnation (though Rob Arnold joined shortly afterwards in 1999 with DeVries joining shortly after the release of
Pass Out of Existence).
The album begins with the thunderous title track, trademark Chimaira. On first listen, I felt the track was a bit boring as an album opener, but upon listening to the entire record it sets the pace for tracks to come. Strangely enough, the next track, 'Clockwork' suddenly slows the pace down a bit. The song has a much more melodic approach to it, mid-tempo chugging with a 50/50 mix of rough and clean vocals. A strange keyboard fill also appears, as this entire record doesn't really need the keyboards. I've always felt Chimaira didn't need much, if any, of the keyboard fills on past records. In terms of sounding like Chimaira, the record is a solid offering. They do experiment with mixed results thrown throughout their groove/metalcore assault though.
The Age of Hell does however fail on a few fronts that hold it back from being a true return to form for the band after 2009's lackluster effort
The Infection. The band seems to barely attempt to actually expand on their experimentation, the prior mentioned keyboard fill in 'Clockwork' is a good example. The track 'Stoma' provides as a pointless interlude, with ambient scratching noises and electronics. The track isn't long however (1:28), but confuses me why it was placed on the record. The guest vocal spot from Phil Bozeman of Whitechapel fame on 'Born in Blood' could have been an excellent vocal delivery from the Whitechapel frontman with Chimaira's sound, but ends up becoming a monotonous bass drop chug-session, sounding nothing like Chimaira but rather Bozeman's band. Unlike Stoma, Samsara is a great instrumental piece from the band. No matter how simple their riffs may be, Rob and Matt do know how to play quite well. The rest of the album past Born in Blood, with the exception of Trigger Finger and Samsara, just seem to be a by-the-book Chimaira record. The listener has to decide whether or not this is a good thing.
Ultimately, Chimaira is able to release another solid offering but filler ultimately pulls the album down. Whether that filler be pretentious groove/metalcore tracks or ambient keyboard fills is up to the listener to decide, but one thing is certain this is a solid Chimaira record and it would be criminal of you to not at least give it one or two listens.
