With all due respect to Mark Hunter — a talented vocalist, extraordinary Tweeter, and Chimaira’s lone original member — this footage of three new[ish] members of Chimaira rehearsing together is about as exciting as this story’s headline makes it sound. While some would say this is “rehearsal” footage, it’d probably be a lot more accurate to call it “learning” footage. It looks like Daath’s Emil Werstler — Chimaira’s senior-most member with a 10-month silver coin – is running the show here and teaching the two new guys how to play Chimaira songs. These guys are all talented musicians and I’m sure the finished product will sound great, but at what point in the mass exodus of members does a band stop being that band? Watching a bunch of men in different bands learn songs so they can go up on stage and pretend to be some other band is just weird! On the other hand, if some kid who knows nothing of all the member swaps goes to a show and loves it, does it even matter? Does life even matter?? Aren’t we all gonna die eventually anyway?!?!?

Maybe Hunter is trying to go the Chris Barnes route; shit, Barnes has been doing it for years and Six Feet Under are still going strong… so I guess fans really don’t care. Speaking of Six Feet Under, former members of Chimaira just wrapped up their Six Feet Under cover band recording sessions and are currently in the mixing process! Now the former members of Six Feet Under just need to join up with Eyal Levi in a reconsituted version of Daath and this three-band circle jerk will be complete.

-VN

So it looks like Chimaira kept pretty busy while we were away.

First: as announced in November, last week’s twelfth annual Chimaira Christmas marked the band’s final performance with guitarists Rob Arnold and Matt DeVries. And, unfortunately, DeVries’ parting gift to vocalist Mark Hunter – who is now the band’s sole remaining original member — was to knock him over in the middle of “The Age of Hell,” resulting in Hunter taking a nasty spill and spraining his ankle. You can watch video of the incident below courtesy of The PRP (the fall comes just after the 1:18 mark), and see a photo of Hunter’s swollen ankle here.

Potentially better news is that while Hunter had thus far remained mum on his plans for Chimaira’s future, the band has since announced replacements for Arnold and DeVries.

Click to read more…

Last week, I saw some kid outside of a Chimaira show compliment keyboardist Sean Z. on his vocal performance. “I had no idea you could scream like that!” the lil’ dude proclaimed. Presumably, the young fan was somehow unaware that Z. is also the vocalist for Dååth, meaning that, yes, he is a helluva front man who can scream his guts out with the best of ‘em.

I have no idea if incidents like that one were the inspiration for what Sean Z. has done now or not, but it’s easy to imagine the epicly bearded musician going “Hey, I’m getting all this new attention because of Chimaira, might as well put it to extra-good use!”

And so, whatever his motivation may be, Sean Z. has posted on his Facebook page links to download — for free, natch — not only the two Dååth albums on which he appears, but also b-sides and demos from those albums.

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Eyal Levi from Dååth, Levi/Werstler, and Audiohammer Studios has obviously been in this business for some time now, and he’s learned a thing or two about a thing or two. This week, he imparts ten lessons about the music biz — and life in general — to you, our beloved readers, once a day, two installments at a time. You can read lessons one and two here, and lessons three and four here, lessons five and six here, and lessons seven and eight here; check out the final two lessons below!

#9: IF YOU’RE NOT GOING TO SETTLE IT YOURSELF, LET IT GO

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxKiK-SeBhE&feature=related

I am wholeheartedly against turning the other cheek. That’s my disclaimer before I get into this. I’m a big proponent of the Nicky from Casino way of life. Two eyes for an eye all the way. There’s a wild card, though. And it’s a wild card we all know and love. It’s called the internet. Gone are the days when you could just settle a beef between just the two parties involved.

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Eyal Levi from Dååth, Levi/Werstler, and Audiohammer Studios has obviously been in this business for some time now, and he’s learned a thing or two about a thing or two. This week, he imparts ten lessons about the music biz — and life in general — to you, our beloved readers, once a day, two installments at a time. You can read the week’s first two lessons here, and the week’s next two lessons here, and the week’s most recent two lessons here; check out lesson numbers seven and eight below!

#7: WEEKENDS? THERE’S NO SUCH THING

If you’re fortunate enough to get to a point in your life where you can actually support yourself from a creative endeavor, then be prepared to throw away all notions of having a normal life. Now ,I know that there’s no such thing as “normal,” and that everyone is an individual, but hear me out on what I mean by that.

Weekends are for resting and partying; weekdays are for working. That’s a normal concept, which fits in with the archetypical 9-5 jobs. It’s perfectly setup for ensuring that you can hold down a social/family life while working at the same time. And, for the majority of the world, it works. There’s a good structure to it. I can see how it would get repetitive and old, but at least you know what to look forward to. And at least you can get things done without too much hassle, because the rest of the world is set up to cater to your schedule.

In the land of creative jobs, good luck with that idea. More often than not, you will find yourself working all hours of the night, for weeks, or even months, on end. If you take breaks like the rest of the world, then you will be left behind.

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Eyal Levi from Dååth, Levi/Werstler, and Audiohammer Studios has obviously been in this business for some time now, and he’s learned a thing or two about a thing or two. This week, he imparts ten lessons about the music biz — and life in general — to you, our beloved readers, once a day, two installments at a time. You can read the week’s first two lessons here, and the week’s next two lessons here; check out lesson numbers three and four below!

#5: EVERYTHING GETS OLD

My favorite dickhead line about dating is, “Show me a super hot girl, and I’ll show you the guy that’s tired of fucking her.” Other variations include “…tired of putting up with her” or “…tired of dealing with her shit.” Any way you say it, the point is that no matter how great something is at one point in your life, you will eventually need something else that’s bigger and better  (i.e., The Next Step). In my opinion, it’s the same phenomenon as when your brain stops registering physical stimulus if you repeat it enough (try scratching an itch for too long to see what I mean). Anything you do long enough without variation will not get you going anymore. Mark Lewis and I even have some theories about how this relates to sound and mixing. But that’s another article…

Is there anything that’s now normal to you which once was just a fantasy? Look at your life. Is there anything you have now that at one point was just a dream? Is there anything you can do now that you couldn’t even imagine doing at one point in time? I’m sure there is. Big or small, I’m sure there is at least one thing in each of your lives that fits the bill. Again, is there anything in your life right now that you almost or do take for granted which you would have killed for in the past?

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Eyal Levi from Dååth, Levi/Werstler, and Audiohammer Studios has obviously been in this business for some time now, and he’s learned a thing or two about a thing or two. This week, he imparts ten lessons about the music biz — and life in general — to you, our beloved readers, once a day, two installments at a time. You can read the week’s first two lessons here; check out lesson numbers three and four below!

#3: BE UNDENIABLE

I first saw Behemoth live when they toured with Suffocation sometime around 2004. I had only heard of them before that. Needless to say, this band blew me away. The sound was shit, as it always is at that club in Atlanta, but that didn’t matter. They came on stage and OWNED. I was captivated from start to finish of the set. And then I bought a shirt. That is such a rare occurrence that I remember it to this day. For me to go buy a shirt after seeing and hearing a band for the first time is not quite on the level of Haley’s Comet… but in the span of my own meaningless existence, it’s pretty remarkable. Anyways, Behemoth is now an institution in extreme music.

I remember the first time I saw Opeth on the Blackwater Park tour. I had kind of gotten into their music prior to that, but had not solidified my opinion on the band yet. When they finally played, I got this amazing feeling, as though I was watching something historical and religious go down. I had never seen or heard a band produce sounds and transitions and emotions that were so right and so on. I felt like people must have felt when they were first seeing the early metal bands in the 1970’s. I’m not exaggerating one bit. I was completely humbled and a fan for life. Obviously, the rest of the metal world eventually caught on.

Anyone here seen Muse live? I’m a sucker for great musicianship and songwriting, and Muse definitely have an ample amount of both. But that didn’t drive my loyalty towards them until I saw them live. Their show is easily one of the most incredible rock shows ever put on by any band ever ever EVER! To try and describe it will not do it justice. Just go see them. I saw them first in 2005, when they were playing small theaters. They are now headlining arenas. I guess enough people couldn’t deny their power.

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Eyal Levi from Dååth, Levi/Werstler, and Audiohammer Studios has obviously been in this business for some time now, and he’s learned a thing or two about a thing or two. This week, he imparts ten lessons about the music biz — and life in general — to you, our beloved readers, once a day, two installments at a time. Enjoy the week’s first two lessons below!

#1: (C+P = R) BEING SUCCESSFUL TAKES TALENT, JUST NOT AT WHAT YOU THOUGHT 

Someone just told me that Thomas Edison didn’t actually invent the light bulb. I was told that he just registered the patent to it. True or not, he definitely got the credit for it. And with that credit he certainly got the rewards as though it were true. It’s also well known that Christopher Columbus didn’t discover America first. However, what we’re taught in the early years of American education doesn’t exactly support that fact. Even though he wasn’t the first, he was the one that got the credit for being first. Just remember the following equation: C+P = R. That stands for Credit + Perception = Rewards.

In an ideal world, success in any field (I know music) would be based on skill, talent, and hard work. We don’t live in an ideal world. If we lived in an ideal world, lots of things we’re used to would be different.

In the world we live in, creative talent is second to marketing talent.  When you have a product that is going to take money out of people’s pockets, that product, whatever it is, has to be worth them parting ways with their cash. And everybody has different reasons for being willing to part with that cash. If you can tap into people’s reason for spending their money, then you will sell more product. Being able to access that part of people’s hearts and minds is a completely different process than the creative one. Yes, marketing and promotion can be creative, but it’s a completely DIFFERENT type of skill set than the creativity required to actually create something out of thin air. And it’s arguably a more important skill set.

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Friendly reminder: as of RIGHT THIS SECOND, the legendary Richard Christy from Death, Iced Earth, Control Denied, and, oh yeah, The Howard Stern Show, is at the MetalSucks/Vertebrae 33  booth at New York Comic Con signing copies of Charred Walls of the Damned‘s ridiculously rocking new album, Cold Winds on Timeless Days, which is out NOW on Metal Blade Records. He’ll be there ’til 7 pm, so there’s still time for you to hop on a bus, subway, or in a cab and get your ass down there — we’re booth #2625. Myself and/or Vince are also there now, and will be there tomorrow and Sunday, too, and we may have some other special guests in store for you yet. So come on by, pick up some free swag courtesy of Indie Merch and Metal Blade, hang out, whatever. It’ll be a blast! Get all the details here.

And now, some other fun shit we did this week:

• We premiered a new live recording of Death’s “Leprosy” and new music from Trapped Under Ice.
• We spoke to Grutle Kjellson from Enslaved, Rex Brown from Kill Devil Hill/Pantera/Down, producer Shane Frisby, and Skateboard Marketing’s Munsey Ricci.
• Valient Thorr’s Valient Himself occupied Wall Street, GWAR’s Dave Brockie gave us the blow-by-blow on the NFL, and Eyal Levi from Dååth and Levi/Werstler and Audiohammer Studios got all Pacino-in-Heat on us.
• We checked out the latest releases from Warbringer and Årabrot.
• We continued The Countdown to The Metal Suckfest and launched a contest in which you can win some sweet swag and a meet and greet session at the show.
• We watched some inter-Emmure drama unfold.
• We begged Sasha Frere-Jones from The New Yorker to stop writing about metal forever.
• We enjoyed the use of Nine Inch Nails in the new trailer for The Avengers.
• We got excited about Cynic’s new line-up + song.
• We celebrated the best Dragonforce cover ever.

Have a terrific, relaxing weekend everyone. See ya Monday, if we don’t see ya at NYCC!

-AR

Well, here’s some shit luck: Chimaira’s U.S. tour in support of their excellent new album, The Age of Hell, LITERALLY just started, and vocalist/Tweeter Laureate Mark Hunter has already fallen ill. That means that, unfortunately, he was forced to bow out of last night’s show at the Sonar in Baltimore, Maryland.

The silver lining, though, is that Chimaira now counts Dååth’s Sean Z. amongst its ranks — technically, he’s the band’s new keyboard player/sampler/electronic noise dude, but, of course, that motherfucker can scream his guts out with the best of ‘em. And so, as part of a noble effort to see to that the fans at least kinda-sorta got what they paid for, Chimaira took the stage with Mr. Z handling lead vocal duties, and, as The PRP affectionately puts it, “became more ‘Chimairååth’ than ever.”

Here’s video from the show:

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Happy birthday, Reign in Blood! We love you. You don’t sound a day over one.

Here’s some other things that happened this week which are worth celebrating:

• We started the countdown to The Metal Suckfest.
• We debuted new music by Immolation and a new video by Early Graves.
• Devin Townsend and Textures’ Jochem Jacobs and Bart Hennephof took us through their live rigs.
• GWAR’s David Brockie discussed the NFL, Daath’s Eyal Levi discussed getting the fuck out, and God Forbid’s Doc Coyle discussed how the times, they are a changin’.
• We spoke to Mike Muir from Suicidal Tendencies, Mother of Mercy’s Bob Wilson, and directors Sean Dunne and Kenneth Thomas.
• We checked out new releases by Ghoul and Taake and Craft.
• Sergeant D. became the most popular feminist in metal.
• Bring Me the Horizon’s Oli Sykes had a bad week.
• We mourned the death of the album intro track.
• We wondered if Mastodon’s live vocals are getting better.

Now go crank some Slayer.

See ya Monday.

-AR

Have you ever stayed in a situation when you knew deep down inside that it was already doomed? I believe in the power of positive thinking a rational amount. That is, if I keep my mind focused on the right shit, the right shit happens in my life. If I focus on the wrong shit, the wrong shit happens. Either way, shit happens, but at least it’s the right shit. Or closer to right than it would have been otherwise. You definitely have some measure of control over some of the outcomes in your life.

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Isn’t waiting when you’re ready one of the most frustrating things ever? “Hurry up and wait” is a very familiar cliché in the music industry. Well, from years of touring and recording, I can say that it’s one of those clichés that’s based on some truth. When you are so focused and ready to do something that inactivity fills you with anxiety and fucks up your mood, then you can’t take advantage of everything you could be spending that extra energy on. There is enough to do in life that you could fill your time with productive, useful, and engaging things rather than sitting around rotting.

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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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All people are not created equal; anybody who thinks so is kidding themselves. Sure, we all deserve equal rights and yada yada yada, but to think that we’re all born with equal intelligence, talent, drive, temperament, etc., is borderline delusional. If we were truly equal, than each of our ultimate impacts on the world and society would be pretty much the same across the board — give or take. But guess what? Because we AREN’T equal, certain people’s contributions to the world will outshine the contributions of others.

I think that is very hard for some people to accept. Pride can be a nasty mental state that will often cloud perception. To really contemplate that someone else’s life, and thus death, may affect multitudes more people than your own can be a tough pill to swallow. I’m not saying that anyone has more of a right to life than anyone else, I’m just saying that some people’s lives will affect the entire world, while others will be lucky to affect the thirty cats they own.  I guarantee you that only one of these obituaries would make it onto the news (unless, perhaps, the latter deceased person sexually abused the thirty cats and then ate their corpses).

These thoughts were stirred up by two of the major news events that took place recently: the untimely death of Amy Winehouse and the horrific bombing and massacre in Norway. Both were terrible for two completely different reasons; one- – fame nor fortune can cure a damaged mind, and two — people are capable of heinous acts in the name of ideology. Both these lessons are universal. History can almost be seen as a fugue between these two themes — they are deeply rooted in who we are as humans. Our beliefs about the world and ourselves can be be incredibly destructive on a physical and/or mental level if not kept in check.

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Earlier this month, From Exile released Just Like You Imagined, a free Nine Inch Nails covers EP (read my review here); now they’ve released a video for the final song on that EP, “A Warm Place.”

Directed by Michael Corrigan and shot by Sidarth Kantamneni, the video, like the song, is understated and elegant; it was wise of them to focus on guest guitarist (and #14 on our list of The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists) beautiful playing. This is a really nice, soothing way to start your day, no?

You can stream, or, better still, download Just Like You Imagined in mp3 or FLAC format here.

-AR

MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with Emil Werstler from Dååth and Levi/Werstler…

Once upon a time, Emil Werstler made a “Betcha Can’t Play This” instructional video for Guitar World, and that video showed him playing so fast that he had to make a second video, this one in front of a live audience, just to disprove some naysayers who accused him of speeding up his performance in the original clip. I love that story, because if you knew nothing else about Werstler or his work, you’d still know that this is a guy who play with such speed and technical skill that other guitar professionals literally can’t believe his abilities are real.

Of course, if speed were Werstler’s only virtue, there’d be no place for him on his list. But he also happens to be a musician of incredible inventiveness who is able to play an intimidatingly wide array of styles — the true reason we’re so head over in heels in love with his playing.

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Ridiculously cool cover art by Jorden Haley

Welcome to the latest edition of “Freeloader” in which we review albums that you don’t have to feel like a douche for downloading for free. Today Axl Rosenberg checks out From Exile’s latest release…

Any band considering making a covers album, let alone a tribute album to one particular band, should be made to listen to From Exile’s new, 100% free Nine Inch Nails cover EP, Just Like You Imagined. These aren’t just rote retreads that make you think “Oh yeah, I love this song!” before shutting it off and digging out the originals. Nor are they ill-conceived drek which utilizes the originals’ lyrics and little else. They’re bona fide reimaginings of the original material, wholly recognizable as the Nine Inch Nails classics we love, but From Exile have never failed to put their own stamp on the tunes.

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We still don’t know when the new Chimaira album is coming out, or what it’s gonna be called, or, uh, very much else about it, to be honest. We do know that that band has a really, really excellent new line-up, though, and that said new line-up will be making their live debut next month, when they do a too-brief six date mini-tour. While new bassist Emil Werstler has played live with the band before, these shows will be the first for his Daath bandmate, Sean Z., and for new drummer Austin D’Amond (Bleed the Sky). So these shows should be pretty exciting.

Presumably, Chimaira will also use these concerts to show out some of their new material. And hopefully we get some official word on album release date soon.

In the meantime, here are the six tour dates, in case you somehow can’t read the poster above:

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Remember that time that you were trying to watch Once Upon A Time In The West while your roommate was blasting Meshuggah in the next room? Then you’re ready for UK’s Xerath, who fuses slamming prog-tinged death metal with soaring, tasteful film score symphonics. For some bands, this melange may stay a gimmick, an excuse to be so-so on the strength of their slick band concept. Not here. Xerath is awesome at it, and II is equal parts high drama and snug, well-built riffage (including a guest spot from our brah Emil Werstler from Daath).

Listen here now but close your curtains unless you wanna be spotted headbanging and air-conducting like this dude!

–ADF

Xerath’s second album II is out May 3 on Candlelight. Pre-order here.