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 Spreading the infection |
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By Travis Tutwiler |
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After having a chance to cool down from their set, guitarist Rob Arnold gives some insight on a release ready to take the metal world by storm. “It’s all about the groove on this one, and we felt this head-bobbing (Rob imitates), hmm type of thing. We wanted to keep that through the entire record,” he notes. ”There aren’t any super-fast songs, and there aren’t any crazy ones. There are faster tempos throughout the album, but they’ve all got this vibe about them – this slower, droning, heavy vibe about them. That’s just kind of what we’re about right now.” It’s been eleven years since the band’s first release, and Arnold and his band mates — Mark Hunter (vocals), Matt DeVries (guitar), Andols Herrick (drums), Jim LaMarca (bass) and Chris Spicuzza (keys/electronics) – have continued to hone their craft. The Infection displays that throughout. You can hear the nuances and how each of the parts work together and stand out, while they’re still pulverizing with some of the most brutal tracks, Chimaira has delivered. “We didn’t intentionally say we needed to write this slower tempo record and. by no means. less heavy,” explains Arnold. “I think it’s even heavier because of its space. There’s just so much more room for all the instruments to speak.” He compares this approach to that of Metallica. “When they slowed it down on “Sad But True,” you could hear the instruments from the vocals. You hear them so well, because there’s room for every instrument to breathe — rather than everything being crammed together. No disrespect to our faster stuff, but we kind of felt like we got into this niche on this one — where it’s like, ‘just look how great the instruments sound and how well they work together and how we can transition parts in more elaborate and colorful ways than maybe they were in the past.’” Another difference in the recording is that Hunter wrote the lyrics while he was singing… to give more spontaneity to the songs. Arnold says that Hunter would “jam a verse and then pick out what was cool about it or maybe it came out great, or maybe it didn’t and he’d start over. Maybe that line was cool with these words; so then he’d go in and do it for real. When you go in blindly and let the music affect what you’re saying, it creates a whole new vibe. I’m definitely stoked on the way everything came out.” As the digital age has become more prevalent and downloading has grown, Chimaira is offering fans three versions of The Infection. There’s a standard edition, limited cd/dvd edition and Special Deluxe Fan Edition. That one is limited to 600 copies and includes tons of extras. “It was Hunter’s idea to take this one by the horns, “Arnold admits.” He said, ‘Let’s do these special packages and try to get people back into the coolness of a record — like we experienced with buying cd’s and tapes or whatever’. Of course, people are still gonna download it and spread it around. It’s inevitable. But you make these things and hope that the diehards will like it.” With the new cd, the band has a solid touring schedule through the end of the year and will make another US trek after the summer European festivals. We can only hope it won’t be long before they’ll be back in DFW. “Texas has always been one of my favorite spots to tour since the beginning – Dallas especially,” states Arnold. “So get ready for Chimaira!” |
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