CHIMAIRA’S ROB ARNOLD HAS ANOTHER BAND?!?
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 4:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
If you read this site regularly, you’re already aware that I’m a huge Chimaira fan. In fact, I pride myself on knowing way too much about them.
I guess I haven’t officially reached stalker status yet, though, because until I read this interview with Chimaira lead guitarist Rob Arnold, I had no idea that the dude had another band – The Elite.
Says Arnold:
“I actually do have a new band, we’re called THE ELITE and people can check it out at MySpace.com/theelite. I am really excited about it, it’s me on guitar, Austin [D'Amond] from BLEED THE SKY on drums — and he’s a crazy drummer, we knew we had to play music together — TJ [Frost] who sang in a band called STEM From Buffalo, and he’s a great vocalist. Mike [Drury] who used to play bass in a band called SANCTUM with CHIMAIRA’s drummer, Andols, and I before we started CHIMAIRA. We just took our time with this, recorded some tunes and we’re looking forward to launching them. If I have some time to devote to touring in CHIMAIRA’s downtime, then we’ll take that opportunity.”
Well, needless to say, I went to the band’s MySpace page immediately, and, hey, guess what? They already have an EP! It’s called Ww3 and it costs all of five bucks on iTunes, so, of course, I downloaded it. I mean, I own every shitty solo album or side project any member of any incarnation of Guns N’ Roses ever made, so it seemed like spending five bucks on a Chimaira side project was the least I could do.
Now. It’s been a very busy day for us here at the Mansion, and, honestly, I haven’t gotten to listen to the EP yet. I did listen to one song on the MySpace page just to make sure I wasn’t about to totally flush my money down the shitter, and it was pretty solid – it had kind of an early-Chimaira feel, but Frost’s vocals are considerably more in the traditional hardcore style than Mark Hunter’s. Although Mark Hunter makes a guest appearance on the EP, so that should be cool, too.
I’ll try to write more about The Elite once I’ve had a chance to give Ww3 a few spins. In the meantime, this seemed like good news to share with my fellow Chimaira fans. ‘Cause for whatever reason, I ain’t never heard ’bout this band before.
And while we’re on the topic: Chimaira are on tour right now. Vince and I are seeing them Sunday in Dirty Jerz. Get dates here.
-AR
Say what you want about various shitty side projects of Guns n Roses, but Slash’s Snakepit rocks.
Even The Neurotic Outsiders?? Noooo…. And here I thought I was the only one…
Wait, what were we talking about?
Sweet! I loves me some Chimaira too.
This, however, is pretty meh.
God DAMN. That is some tasty shit. Love Rob Arnold’s riffing… Very distinctive.
couldn’t be any worse than cliche, no original thought of my own, let’s sound like some other band that’s popular right now, chimaira. maybe this will help him get away from the #3 on my list of biggest douchebags in heavy music, mark hunter. [only topped by fred durst & lars ulrich].
no, mark… no one has EVER called you “the metal moses” except you… you are not allowed to give yourself a nickname. you just thought it was a clever [but it's not] way to be yet another band to find an excuse to do the wall of death at your shows. i will give you a nickname. how about TURD?
Maybe the reason they sound like Chimaira, is because Rob writes 80% of the material!!!!!!
YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love Rob Arnolds riffing…Nothing crazy original, just tight, heavy and sludgy as fuck…plus, what hasn’t been done in metal. You can take any band and find things about that band that sound like another band…
I have always liked Bleed The Sky, and you could always tell they were big Chimaira fans (especially the production, they used the same producer they used for Pass out of Existence I think) And I do like his drumming quite a bit. Not a huge fan of this though, not really a fan of side bands that sound a whole lot like the original band.
Chimaira sucks so much cock. They are so boring and shitty. Axl sucks for liking these guys so much.
I bet you suck way more cock than Chimaira. See them live and ask yourself ” would I tell mark hunter to his face to suck dick”. I bet you wouldnt!
Shut up retard.
I bet you are a life n00b.
Chimaira is modern thrash – well executed and very tight.
not to be confused with the Norwegian black metal-band “Elite” then?
maybe you should stop pretending that the prp doesnt exist, cause you would have know about this over two weeks ago
Arnold’s Elite – wookubus
(2:30 PM PST 08/09/2009)
Chimaira guitarist Rob Arnold has been busying himself with a new side project by the name of The Elite as of late. The group features Arnold on guitarist TJ Frost of Stemm fame on vocals, Bleed The Sky drummer Austin D’Amond and bassist Mike Drury. For now, a preliminary Myspace page has been launched for the group here, with an official launch planned in the coming weeks.
God damn, what the fuck is up with all the haters on Chimaira all the time, they’re a great fucking band, and besides that, this is only about Rob, so WTF?
I think The Elite shit is alright but the vocals will probably never sit well with me.
But now that I think of it, why did I even comment, there’s always haters for every band, especially commenting on band threads and blogs, which is a huge “why the fuck are you here?” question for me.
Wow, this band is just as great as Chimaira!
If you know my opinion on Chimaira, you’d realize that this is quite an insult.
Fuck, it’s like Jamey Jasta had a metalcore band with a nu-metal guitar tuning. This shit is awful. Why am I not surprised. And the drum rhythms are beyond boring, even relative to other shitcore bands like this.
God I hope that opinion part was in part due to the shitstorm over on the IWABO comment board.
Nu-metal tuning??? Lol You guys crack me the fuck up!!!!!!!!!
They went to fucking vegas when they werre with dethklok and soilent green why can’t the come again!?!?!?!??!?!??!?!?
wow another one, goodie. The others were so successful
stemm can suck my balls. thus anything stemm related must also suck. my balls.
Seeing as I find Chimaira boring and utterly forgettable (and not for a lack of trying… I’ve given them a chance every time they put out a new album), I doubt there’s anything for me here.
This band sounds pretty decent…
lose the singer.