Chimaira

Jim LaMarca, Rob Arnold, Mark Hunter, Matt DeVries, Chris Spicuzza, Andols Herrick.



“We’re not dead yet”

Chimaira were riding high on the new wave of America heavy metal just a few years ago until they nearly destroyed themselves. Written off as metalcore bores, they’re back with their best album yet.

At his home is Cleveland, Ohio, 31-year-old Chimaira frontman Mark Hunter is running through the kind of last-minute checklist that, for most of us, would mean that it’s laundry day: socks, check, t-shirts, check, pants, check...Though, where he’s going, the word ‘launderette’ often has little meaning. Starting tonight it’s two months on the bus, up and down the East Coast of America, playing arenas with Disturbed, Killswitch Engage, Lacuna Coil and a re-formed Spineshank. Mark seems like he’d be bouncing off the walls with excitement if he wasn’t still going through that mental checklist in case he’s forgotten anything. Gas off, post diverted, pets taken care of...

Two months to a functional touring band is like two months to a multiple felon – a walk in the park, especially on this tour. It’s not the major league, but it’s a step up there: nice buses, decent soundchecks, maybe even a hotel or two. Eight to 10 thousand people a night is nothing to sniff at either.

“It’s one of the biggest tours we’ve ever been a part of and this is our first arena tour,” enthuses Mark. “We’re not a band who’s gonna sell out and do something stupid for popularity, but we’re also not a band who wants to be in the basement and only have seven to eight fans. We want to expand, but we’re not going to compromise our music.”

He sounds fired up, ready for this. The album’s in the bag and it’s a cracker, up to and including the 14-minute instrumental that rounds it off in low-end noise; something they won’t be replicating live because it might cause their fans to “suffer from vertigo.” The track was going to be called Cleveland, a nod at their hometown’s desolate, industrial influence on the band. Instead they called it The Heart Of It All.

“Our town is very responsible for the way we sound. It was kind of a tribute to that,” says Mark, “a thank you for 10 years of inspiring us. It still winks at our home town because everyone knows that’s the heart of it all.”

I’m not going to slip up and become a trainwreck asshole again!”- Mark Hunter.

Right now the band is firing on all four cylinders (well, six technically). They played Dubai Desert Rock Festival, their first Middle Eastern gig, where they debuted Destroy And Dominate. They’ve got the set down and they’re all getting along.

“The big difference with this album was there was no back story that was fuelled with drama,” explains Mark. “We had a very successful previous album; we had two great record labels behind us that really believe in the band, and the same line-up with no inner quarrelling. It’s such a crazy way to explain it, but it’s like when you went back in time but you had the same skills that you’d acquired over the past 10 years. I felt like it was just as primitive and hungry as 10 years ago, but I also had no boundaries. I felt like I could write anything I wanted to write, but now I also had the skills and the knowledge that I’d acquired over 10 years. Everybody was writing the same way and we were hitting off each other.”

You wouldn’t have ever known from watching them live, but this has been far from the case in the past and this present harmony is the result of a lot of inner-searching. Back in 2005 Chimaira were a dominant presence on the Sounds Of The Underground tour with Lamb Of God and Clutch, but still they were losing ground to bands like Killswitch Engage, ironically, Lamb Of God and even Trivium, who Mark thought his then-record label, Roadrunner, were playing favourites to. Slagging the label off in the press probably, as he acknowledges today, wasn’t the best idea.

“We’re talking about a very dark period for the band,” says Mark. “Looking back, I know we were very immature about a lot of things. If a band’s more successful or successful quicker than you, you want to blame everyone but yourself. To worry about other bands nowadays seems so trivial to me, but it was a learning experience and one that I didn’t like. Also in that time period, when we recorded our self-titled album, we were doing Sounds Of The Underground with a new drummer {Kevin Talley} who I dislike working with and that was another thorn in my side, like, ‘ I hate the label and now I hate a bandmate’!

“On a personal level,” says Mark, “I went about as low as I’ve ever gone, with depression and anxiety...I kind slipped away from myself a lot more than I ever had before and I felt I was infected with a lot of negativity.”

Mark admits that Chimaira was nearly over. Guitarist Rob Arnold would stand up for the line-up that felt it was falling apart. Miserable and not wanting to do it anymore, Mark and Chris Spicuzza (Keyboards) talked about starting a side-project, hoping it’d be “a lot bigger and better than what we were doing.”

“I used to be trying to keep up with the Joneses,” admits Mark, “always chasing what seemed to be an impossible dream and never paying attention to what we had. That was unfortunate. I can’t speak for all the guys, but I’m not the only one. Instead of appreciating it we were like, ‘Well, we didn’t sell as much as this band.’ Nowadays I feel thankful for what we’ve accomplished and proud that we have such a loyal fanbase and growing fanbase. I wound up finding myself again and doing things like martial arts, training harder and rebuilding myself emotionally and physically, and I came out stronger as a person from looking at negative things in a positive way.”

By a strange twist of fate, it was Mark’s former label Roadrunner who indirectly enabled his recovery. When the label put on a gig to celebrate their 25th anniversary, former Chimaira drummer Andols Herrick was part of the performance. Asked by a video-grapher if he regretted leaving Chimaira he apparently started singing Cher’s If I could Turn Back Time. You probably had to be there.

“We heard that,” says Mark, “so I called him and said, ‘Hey I heard you wanna come back. We’re not getting along with our drummer and the band’s almost over if you don’t join the band.’ He was like, ‘I’ll be there right away.’

“I had a great time writing and recording these songs and we’re gonna have a great time touring,” beams Mark, finally packed and ready to go. “It’s a reminder not to slip up and become a trainwreck asshole again!”

Everyone does sometimes.

“Exactly. The message I’m trying to convey is that you can be at your absolute worst and come out of it stronger than ever. I’m proof of that and our band is proof of that. I don’t wanna jinx anything but the past year has been excellent. It seems like the sky’s the limit.”