CHIMAIRA Frontman Says 'Resurrection' Is A Mix Of New And Old

Morley Seaver of Caustic Truths! magazine recently conducted an interview with CHIMAIRA frontman Mark Hunter. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

On the band's new album, "Resurrection":

"We just finished up and everything went great. It's like a brand new start. To start off I guess, it's new but it's slash old at the same time. A lot of people may know or may not know, but our original drummer Andols Herrick came back to the band about a year ago. And we're really excited about working with him again. So everyone kinda had a whole new attitude, you know, regarding the writing direction. Everyone's pumped up. We were also excited because we'd switched record labels. We had a clear head going into it. So we didn't have any pre-conceived notions. We just wanted to go in and make stuff that would put smiles on our faces. I guess…angry metal smiles, if you will. And we went in, and every song that we wrote, we wanted to make sure that everyone was super happy with it, and that it was good enough that people would probably die listening to it in the pit. (laughs) Those were our goals and I think that we achieved them."

"It's still us but it's all over the place as well. I think it's quite a bit of a roller coaster, you know. There's some songs there in the 2 ½-/3-minute range, all the way up to you know, almost 11 minutes. So, I mean, it's just quite a variety and eclectic, but probably without being cliché and saying the same thing every band says, it's definitely the heaviest one. I think it is. I mean, I want to like destroy things when I listen to it and I don't even like my band. (laughs)”

On the album's title track, "Resurrection":

"It was kinda funny because we were writing and whatnot, and I had not gone to practice for a few days and I came in and I had in the back of my mind that I was going to bring up a little bit of a band meeting and say, 'We need to write an opener, you know. We have some great songs but I haven't heard an opener yet.' And they were like, 'Oh well, check out this song we wrote yesterday and see how you feel.' And then as soon as I heard it I was like, 'Holy crap, that's the opener of the album.' It's got all the elements of CHIMAIRA that you love...and it's just fast. There's some blasting and there's some of the heaviest grooves that we have written and lyrically I wanted to just reflect on, you know, the hardships the band went through. A lot of them were points where some of guys wanted to leave the band. I mean we were just really unhappy when we were on Roadrunner and everything. So this was kinda reflecting on standing in front of a wall and either staring at it or trying to get over it. And this song was about getting over it."

On the return of drummer Andols Herrick:

"The change is very, very great. I mean, when Andols left the band he wasn't very much a writer, you know, of his parts and stuff like that. This time, we didn't have to say a thing to him. And this time around he just totally changed his tune and wrote some really creative things. And I started off playing drums and I'm pretty familiar with them and what they're supposed to sound like, and I understand the drum world completely. And there's some fills on this record he's doing on this record, I'm just, 'What the frig are you doing?' I just cannot figure it out to save my life. So I think fans of the musicians side of things are going to be really pleased how he stepped it up on this album."

Read the entire interview at BellaOnline.