Well, to start this review. The band really turned into a new direction, lead singer Mark Hunter has told us this fact in many interviews. The album would surprise the fans because they really had to listen to the album. And so I did, many times. And I have to say the disc is not bad, it is not bad at all! But it is not good enough to make Chimaira legendary for me. Maybe this will happen because of the media hype surrounding the band for the last years.

 

About the music, the band has stepped away from typical song structures, resulting into longer songs with many individual segments. On the other hand the newly added guitar solos are the best addition to the new sound of Chimaira in my opinion. For example the solo in the first track ‘Nothing Remains’ is really something new they put into their sound. This is something we weren’t used to hear on previous Chimaira albums, so this sure is a good new added quality to this album.

The thing which disappointed me was the fact that I was looking forward to hear some excellent drumming by Kevin Talley. After Andy and Ricky this is the third drummer since the previous disc, but Kevin Talley had a really good resume. Guitarist Kerry King (Slayer) advised the band to ask Kevin, but the things he is doing aren’t that special to me.