Coal Chamber: Reunited

It’s been a busy fall concert season and I have several new posts in the works. However, I have to put them aside for the moment because on Monday, Coal Chamber announced that they are reuniting! Admittedly, I was a bit disappointed that they’re only going to be playing a few shows in Australia and I haven’t yet figured out how to get there… job transfer, stowaway, hot air balloon. Even so, the news itself is incredibly exciting. We’re talking about COAL CHAMBER. After almost ten years since singer Dez Farfara left and the band broke up, they have settled their differences, cleaned up, and decided to play music together again.

Coal Chamber developed their own unique style of heavy metal, characterized by chunky, dissonant guitar, hammering percussion, and aggressive bass. All of this was capped with Dez’s hypnotic growl. The band only released three albums from 1997 – 2002. Each offered a slightly different take on the CC sound. For me, Coal Chamber was instrumental in introducing me to metal. I was immediately entranced by Dez’s vocal delivery and the incredible wall of sound created by just a 3-piece band. I love listening to the reverberation of the bass strings and Dez’s layered vocals. I was completely addicted from the first few bars of “Loco,” from their self-titled release. Chamber Music introduced more flow and atmosphere to their sound. It also included a cover of Peter Gabriel's "Shock The Monkey" with Ozzy Osbourne. I copied both CD's to cassette tape so I could listen to them in my car! Finally, Dark Days was a well-produce, polished version of their first album.

I’m not going to talk about the controversies, rumors, or anything else surrounding their break-up. What’s important here is the fact that people can overcome their differences and recognize their friendship. For the fans, and there are many of us out there, the news of a reunion just makes us hungry for more. My twitter feed on Monday was completely consumed by Coal Chamber. If Dez and the others were wondering if people would be interested in Coal Chamber shows, they quickly got an answer. I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hold onto the hope that this is just the beginning of the rebirth of Coal Chamber.

A trip down memory lane for your enjoyment…

Coal Chamber is:
Dez Farfara, vox

Meegs Rascon, guitar

Mike Cox, perc

Chela Rhae, bass

Dez also fronts DevilDriver (as if you didn't know); Meegs and Mike have also formed We Are The Riot.

Listen To This - September 5, 2011

I know I've been letting the blog slip by over the last weeks, but summer has been busy. September is here already, but I’m not about to let go of summer just yet. Here are a couple of bands with new albums out this year that I've been listening to a lot recently. I was able to catch them both on tour at Heavy MTL in Montreal.

In Flames
Swedish band, In Flames has been churning out their brand of melodic death metal for many years. Many fans are familiar with “Take This Life” off of the album Come Clarity. However, if you’re new to In Flames, you should dive headlong into all of their material. I saw them live at the Heavy MTL festival in Montreal. Their set was raw and electric. Singer Anders Friden builds incredible emotion into his range of vocal styles, from clean, soaring choruses to fiery screams. In the softer moments, when the guitars slow and mire themselves in delicious feedback, Anders voices speaks to you, crackling with intense, tragic emotion. You feel like you’re on the edge of insanity, looking into a world through his bone chilling lens.

Their set covered material from their latest album, Sounds Of A Playground Fading and reached back to albums like Colony and Whoracle. Sounds Of A Playground Fading is stellar release. The album churns and burns through thirteen tracks, covering every depth of emotion, imagery, and raw power the band can muster. Friden swerves between clean vocals and melodic screams. The end of the album could have contained a ballad or acoustic piece, fading away into forget tracks like so many other metal bands. Fortunately, synth effects and backing beats envelope the final tracks in an ethereal sound, cut from clean production and ebbing further from generic metal. My favorite tracks include “Deliver Us,” “Fear Is the Weakness,” “Where The Dead Ships Dwell,” and “Jester’s Door.”

Heavy MTL Set list:
1. Cloud Connected
2. Alias
3. Pinball Map
4. Deliver Us
5. The Hive
6. Only For the Weak
7. Where The Dead Ships Dwell
8. The Mirror’s Truth
9. The Quiet Place
10. Take This Life



Red Fang
Heavy metal act, Red Fang stormed onto the stage at Montreal’s Heavy MTL and threw down a short, but energetic set. The six songs were taken from their two albums: Prehistoric Dog and this year’s Murder the Mountains. With a gritty, heavy sound focusing on the simplicity of the interplay between guitars, drums, vocals, Red Fang reach back to an earthy feel often missing from some of the over-produced metal being released these days. Their sounds is as refreshing as it dirty with chugging riffs, driving percussion, and catchy vocals. Standout tracks from Red Fang include “Malverde,” “Wires,” and “Prehistoric Dog.” If that’s not enough, their videos for Wires and Prehistoric Dog are hilarious, not just cheesy film with background music, and act as another reminder that the better days are still alive and well.

Heavy MTL Set list:
1. Into The Eyes
2. Shark
3. Wires
4. Malverde
5. Good To Die
6. Prehistoric Dog



More to come...