Chimaira is having good time

The band will be at the House of Blues for its Christmas show.

By JOHN BENSON

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

“Back to basics” is how the members of Cleveland-based, nationally renowned metalcore band Chimaira approached their most recent release, “Resurrection.”

Not only does the project include original drummer Andols Herrick, who left the band before the recording of its 2005 self-titled album, but it also finds Chimaira off Roadrunner Records.

The former helped restore the sextet’s creativity, while the latter alleviated internal band pressures.

Overall, the move was positive with singer Mark Hunter feeling as though the Ferret Records release “Resurrection” is the band’s best effort to date, which he readily admits is a clichéd stance. Still, that’s how he feels.

“Basically I think it was the terms the album was written under,” said Hunter, calling from a tour stop in Tucson, Ariz.

“We were getting along better than we ever had before. There wasn’t any pressure from anybody, and we just had a really great time making it. We just didn’t have any drama whatsoever. It was a good time, and I think that you can see when we play live, we’re actually just having a good time on stage.

“We’re not worrying about anything. We’re just having fun, which we kind of got out of doing for a while. There were so many negative things going on in the band, but now that we are back it’s like happy times, which is kind of ridiculous for a band that’s as aggressive as we are.”

Perhaps epitomizing the new spirit within the Chimaira band dynamic is “Resurrection” track “Six.” Not only is it the band’s longest song to date, clocking in at nearly 10 minutes, but it represents a camaraderie between these musicians that is something special.

Basically, Hunter came up with the idea for Matt DeVries (guitar), Rob Arnold (guitar) and himself to write three minutes of material with the hope of merging it all together into one song.

Eventually, Herrick, Jim LaMarca (bass) and Chris Spicuzza (keyboards) contributed parts, and “Six” was born.

“It’s probably the most moody song we have, and it’s all over the place,” Hunter said. “It’s like a roller coaster that is nice and mellow in the middle but then goes back to the sledgehammer.”

Fans can expect to hear that track and plenty more at the band’s upcoming eighth annual “Chimaira Christmas” show, which takes place Saturday at the House of Blues. This yearly event has become something special not only to Chimaira but to its fans, who know the group always does something unique for its hometown holiday show. This year is no different.

“It’s probably going to be the longest set list we have ever done in one show,” Hunter said. “There was a Christmas show where we did two dates back to back, but this is the longest set list timewise. We normally play about an hour and 10 minutes, but it’s not going to be like a 3 1/2-hour Metallica show.”

Naturally, a 180-minute show would leave Hunter’s vocal chords shredded.

But that’s not why the group isn’t playing for three hours. 

“Actually, people would just get bored,” Hunter laughed. “I can handle it, but I wouldn’t want to go see anybody unless it was Metallica or Nine Inch Nails play that long.”

He added, “I think our fans know that they expect it to be the best show we’ll put on the whole year and this won’t be any different.”