"We made a t-shirt with Chimaira and this NWOAHM and the press kind of grabbed hold of it because that was great idea for a campaign!"

A few years ago Chimaira were considered first class metalcore. Seen not only as an innovative band during the 'Impossibility Of Reason' era, but also as forerunners of the so called NWOAHM movent (along with KSE, LOG and Shadows Fall), Chimaira had all the chances to outshine their contemporaries. Unfortunately there were also too many drummers, label changes and personal clashes too and today the band is often being ignored as a generic metalcore act with nothing passionate and exciting to be expected from.

Some say Chimaira have missed their momentum. Might be, but they have a new album - 'The Infection'. So we need to talk to them and we found guitarist Matt

an interview conducted by Stefan Yordanov - Stiff

WHEN I HEARD THE ALBUM I HAD THE IMPRESSION THAT THERE WAS SOME CONCEPT BEHIND IT. IS IT TRUE?

There’s something built up. I think with most of our music or at least last couple of records everything kind of happened subconsciously. We used to go to record and thinking that we’ve got to do this and we’ve got to do that, but especially for the last to records we just went into it and whatever comes out, comes out, which has been nice, because there hasn’t been any pressure from label, fans and anything. I think people will be happy with the last one, so it was cool. It just happened that way, a lot of people say it’s a lot slower and groovier. It wasn’t intentional. It’s just the way it came out.

HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT OF RECORDING A FULL CONCEPT ALBUM?

Me personally no, but who knows about the future...

BECAUSE THERE ARE SIGNS OF A FULL CONCEPT IN THIS ALBUM, LIKE THE INFECTION AND STUFF…

Yeah, definitely, yeah, there’s definitely the infection in the lyrics. That’s kind of a concept, but initially was the music. There was no concept until after the music was written. So Mark with his lyrics got rid of everything off his chest like an infection, talking about everything in the past, you know the interpretation of the lyrics. We also think the music is kind of infectious, kind of try to spread it across the world and everything.

YOU STARTED THIS VERY EXCITING CAMPAIGN OF POSTING FLYERS AND STENCILS ON YOU WEBSITE AND GIVING CODES TO FANS. DID YOU RECEIVE VERY EXCITING PICTURES FROM ALL AROUND THE WORLD?

We have so far and it’s been pretty overwhelming from different places that we never ever knew our music reached, you know? Some very cool picture, some crazy pictures… We’ve always been that kind of band that communicates with fans as much as possible. Certain things we’re doing for our new fan club coming up. So I think fans appreciate this and we have a lot of fun sorting stuff like that out, you know?

DO YOU PLAN IN THE FUTURE TO GO BACK TO YOUR STRAIGHTFORWARD TYPE OF SONGWRITING, BACAUSE SOME OF YOU SAID SEVERAL YEARS AGO THAT YOU WERE NEVER GOING TO WRITE ANOTHER SONG LIKE ‘DOWN AGAIN’ OR ‘POWERTRIP’?

That would probably be… I don’t know about ‘Powertrip’… That would probably be someone else. About ‘Down Again” that would probably be me or Rob. We both love the song, don’t get us wrong, but that was one of the songs written under a little bit of pressure from the record label at the time to do something a little bit softer. Luckily it wasn’t, but I don’t know if it would have even happened haven’t they said that. As far as straightforward writing, I think that’s all we have been doing for the last record and this one, kind of just writing what we want and not really over thinking anything and having fun with jamming, but every record has kind of different writing process…

PLEASE, TRY TO DESCRIBE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ‘THE INFECTION’ AND THE LAST ALBUM ‘RESURRECTION’.

Music wise or…?

YEAH, MUSICALLY.

Musically I think the new one is a little bit slower in tempo and there’s a little bit more groove to it. I think it has some of the heaviest riffs we have ever written. I love the record ‘Resurrection’ and I think it may be sounds like a clichй, but I think this record definitely tops it and that’s what we try to do with every record, so…

Musically, I think there’s a lot of emotion and you can hear it in the Mark’s voice and you can hear it in the music. I think the musicianship has kind of stepped out a little bit, but that’s what we try with every record. Mainly I think it’s not necessarily heavier, but it has more of a dark feel to it.

I FELT IT DARKER AND A LITTLE BIT SLOWER. AND ‘THE HEART OF IT ALL’ MIGHT HAVE BEEN VERY COMPLICATED TO PLAY.

It was at first. It’s kind of funny and we were talking about it the other day. We wish we could tour and played every one of these songs on tour, because it gets so much tighter, you know what I mean, before we record. That way when you go to the recording studio everything is easy, because you’ve been trained and so practiced those songs. Writing and playing these songs every day is way different. Sometimes we feel like hey, let’s write the whole record, play it the whole tour and then record it. That might be easier. Not that we would ever do that. We just thought that way would be much easier.

DO YOU PLAN EUROPEAN TOUR AND FESTIVAL APPEARANCES LIKE GRASPOP OR GODS OF METAL IN ITALY, SOME MAJOR FESTIVAL APPEARANCES?

I certainly hope so. Our booking agent is working on it right now. I can say this much, we’re definitely going to Europe right after the Disturbed tour which would end in May. So by may or June we will definitely be in Europe but I’m just not sure what shows and where and hopefully festivals, because they happen at that time.

I WATCHED THAT DVD THAT CAME OUT WITH ‘RESURRECTION’ AND THERE WAS AN EPISODE IN IT IN WHICH MARK BROKE HIS CELL PHONE. IS HE THAT AGGRESSIVE?

No, it’s kind of mean but it was basically taking fun of the original DVD ‘The Dehumanizing Process’ and there was an episode in there where our drummer at the time got very angry, so Mark was just kind of making fun of that.

MATT, WHAT HAPPENED TO NWOAHM?

You know, I’m not sure. It was a cool campaign and I don’t know if a lot of people know out there but it was kind of crazy. It stared from this NWOBHM so we made a t-shirt with Chimaira and this NWOAHM and the press kind of grabbed hold of it because that was great idea for a campaign when we were coming to Europe for us, KSE, God Forbid and Shadows Fall. I don’t know what happened to it may be it faded out, but we’re still going strong. I think it was kind of press thing, you know?

HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEW LAMB OF GOD ALBUM?

I’ve only heard three songs but it came out in The States only yesterday so I’ll actually pick it up probably, but I loved what I heard. I’m a huge fan of these guys – they are great friends.

IS THERE SOME KIND OF COMPETITION BETWEEN YOU GUYS?

Oh, not at all! No. What’s cool about us, you know, back in the day one when we first toured together years ago, we were on the same level. And now they just become massive over here and in Europe as well and what’s cool about them is that they have not forgotten …and they are like us, they helped us out. You know, even now when they are much larger. So it’s really not a competition thing. I think all the bands, not  all bands, but these that do it long time enough understand that if there is any sort of competition, metal is just gonna die. And they just need to help each other and I think the only competition is between newer metal bands that don’t know what they are doing yet. I hope many bands will be like LOG and KSE helping each other and just being cool.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT TRIVIUM THEN?

Personally it’s not my favourite music, but we met those guys when they were very young and we kind of lost touch. We’re friends, but  I’m just not really into their music. Not my cup of tea.

YEAH, OKAY. MY LAST QUESTION, REALLY. WHICH ALBUM CHANGED YOUR LIFE?

That’s the hardest question you could ever ask. Without being too clichй and say Slayer’s ‘Reign In Blood’ is in my top 5, I would say G’n’R ‘Appetite for Destruction’, because to me  front and back that is the only of the thousand records I own, that is the only one I can listen to every day and every single time it’s good and it’s impressive. It’s impressive that they have these straight rock riffs, stay catchy and good. I think that changed me and made me a huge fan for life except for the latest stuff which to me isn’t G’n’R…

BUT THEN WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT ‘CHINESE DEMOCRACY’?

I think it’s awful.I think he tries to write like, how many songs are in there? 11? 12? Well I think he tries to write like 12 versions of ‘November Rain’. He should concentrate on rock, but obviously he can’t do that, so… Without Slash it’s not G’n’R.

HAVE YOU HEARD THE FAITH NO MORE HAVE RE-UNITED?

I just read about that. I think it’s awesome. I was a big fan years ago when I was younger, so I’m just interested what are they going to do. Are they going to tour first or are they going to write a record? Have you heard or?

THERE’S GOING TO BE A TOUR, BUT IT’S GOING TO BE STRICTLY AN EUROPEAN AFFAIR, AS THEY ANNOUNCED IT.

I sincerely hope they will do another one over here, otherwise we’re screwed, ha-ha…

MAY BE YOU WILL BE HERE IN EUROPE IN THE SAME TIME, SO…

Let’s hope so, I’ll cross my fingers. I know our keyboard player Chris will love that, they are his favourite band.

THANK YOU MATT, SAY HI TO THE OTHER GUYS AND HAVE A NICE TOUR.

I definitely will. Thank you very much. I appreciate this. It’s going to be a nice one.

rights Tangra Mega Rock