If I’m not mistaken, Chimaira vocalist Mark Hunter has now been interviewed for MetalSucks more times than any other musician — which is fine by me. Not only is he one of my favorite front men all of modern metal, but I always come away from these interviews feeling like I actually learned something about a band I love. In a world where it increasingly feels like too many folks are giving what I’d call “paint by numbers” answers to interview questions, Hunter’s willingness to be so sincere is always refreshing.

And, besides, Chimaira’s new album, The Age of Hell (out today on eOne — stream it here, buy physical copies here, or download it from iTunes here), is not only totally awesome, but it arrives admist a flurry of drama and controversy, as the band changed fifty percent of the line-up in the intervening years since 2009′s The Infection. So there was certainly plenty to discuss this go-’round!

After the jump, read the full transcript of my most recent chat with Hunter, in which he discusses those line-up changes, Hell‘s creation, the band’s upcoming tour plans, and much, much more.

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Alright, so I have no idea who the YouTube user known as  Music121791 is, but he’s made my day by posting the below video, which shows Chimaira’s longtime producer, Ben Schigel, working on the band’s new album in the studio (peep vocalist Mark Hunter texting in the corner) — which means we get to hear roughly sixty seconds of new music.

And what a sixty seconds it is! That is a classic Chimaira riff right there — fully of groove, heavy as fuck, and retardedly catchy. I need to hear more of this album, and I need to hear it, like, yesterday.

Amazingly, this video — which was not sanctioned by the band — has been on YouTube for over a month, but it was only just brought to my attention by a reader calling himself “Butters” (obviously a Chimaira die-hard like myself).

And weirder still is that in the “suggestions” column next to the above video was a link to ANOTHER video with some MORE killer new Chimaira music in it, which has ALSO been up since February. This one’s audio quality is even worse than that of the first vid, because some dude filmed the band working on Ustream right off his monitor. But if you’re like me, new Chimaira music is new Chimaira music and you’ll take it however you can get it.

Second vid after the jump…

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A lot has happened since Chimaira released their first full-length DVD, The Dehumanizing Process, in 2004; as captured by director Todd Bell, the band portrayed in that DVD is struggling to make the album they want to make, struggling to stay signed, struggling to get good tours, struggling just to stay together. The Chimaira of Coming Alive — the band’s third excellent collaboration with Bell — are opening for Disturbed, playing arenas, and taking bets on how many copies The Infection will sell in its first week. We’re obviously not in Metallica territory or anything here, and we do see that the band’s members are still working their collective ass off (a scene in which bassist Jim LaMarca personally hands out band stickers and canvasses fans is particularly striking) — but Coming Alive has less conflict and drama than its predecessor. And while no one should begrudge a band this talented and hard-working, unfortunately, conflict and drama are the things great stories are made of.

It’s the biggest — and, really, the only — strike against Coming Alive. Luckily, Bell is such a talented guy that it also really doesn’t matter in the scheme of things.

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Few bands in modern metal are as exciting as Chimaira. That’s because few bands constantly undergo such a dramatic and undeniable evolutions from album to album – and do so with a bare minimum of line-up changes. From their 2000 self-released debut, This Present Darkness, right up to 2007′s Resurrection, Chimaira have never made the same album twice. Elements of thrash, death, groove, black, and even prog metal and punk abound, and, ultimately, the only thing you ever know for sure about a new Chimaira album is this: it’s gonna be heavy as a motherfucker, and just as catchy.

As the band – which includes guitarists Rob Arnold and Matt DeVries, bassist Jim LaMarca, drummer Andols Herrick, and keyboardist/sampler Chris Spicuzza – anticipates the April 21 release of their sixth album, The Infection, we were lucky enough to snag an exclusive e-mail interview with vocalist Mark Hunter. After the jump, read Mark’s thoughts on the group’s latest offering, the ongoing metamorphosis of their sound, reuniting with longtime producer Ben Schigel, the internet as a marketing tool, the state of his pure hatred, and more.

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So as you may have heard by now, Chimaira are allowing fans to watch them live in the studio as they record their new album. The way it works is, you go to their official site and if the “Live Cam” icon in the upper right corner of the screen is red, you can click on it and watch whatever the fuck they’re doing at the moment. Sounds pretty cool, right?

Unfortunately, as I watched drummer Andols Herrick finish up his tracks yesterday afternoon, I remembered something I already knew: being in the studio is not super exciting. In fact, it’s pretty tedious. Herrick played some drums, picked his cuticles, played the same song again, picked his cuticles some more, fucked around with the cymbals a little, spoke (inaudibly) with producer Ben Schigel, played the same song again… and then I woke up an hour later with drool all over my keyboard.

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Here’s the Chimaira story for the week: even though it had been previously announced that the band would be making their new album with producer Jason Suecof, with whom they worked on 2007′s Resurrection, they are, instead, reuniting with Ben Schigel. Schigel was originally the vocalist for Switched, one of the worst nu metal bands these old ears have heard, but he did an awesome job producing two previous Chimaira albums, The Impossibility of Reason and Chimaira (He’s also worked with Walls of Jericho and – ugh – Drowning Pool.).

Lest you doubt that Schigel and Chimaira are a winning combination, here’s the video for “Save Ourselves” from their self-titled album. The song slays, even if the video is one of the worst I’ve ever seen.

-AR