Chimaira, the Ohio outfit consisting of guitarists Rob Arnold and Matt DeVries, singer Mark Hunter, bassist Jim LaMarca, drummer Andols Herrick and keyboardist Chris Spicuzza, have released their most forcefully devastating album to date. Infection does exactly what the title implies, takes over the senses and mercilessly beats the organism into submission until it dominates the host. “Impending Doom” is theatrical in its vast scope while “Destroy And Dominate” is a calculated calamity and “On Broken Glass” showcases Mark’s vocals that plunge to the Earth’s core.
Rob Arnold, who keeps himself immersed in all things music from demo recordings, instructional DVDs and his side project, the Elite, spoke to the Aquarian Weekly while on tour as direct support for Hatebreed. His enthusiasm and maybe the main point of the interview may be summed up in one line: “Sometimes you have to sit back and say, ‘Fuck, yeah, I play in a heavy metal band for a living.’”
You worked with Ben Schigel again, what prompted that decision?
We’ve worked with him for years. Even when we were 14-years-old, he was the guy in town that had a studio in our little town of Strongsville, Ohio, back in the mid-‘90s. The guys in the Cleveland area were getting great recordings just by going to Ben. He’s a guy that knows our music super well and we’re great friends with him, and we have a good vibe in the studio. There was really no pressure of where we needed to record or anything like that, we decided that maybe we were better off being able to go home each night rather than doing the hotel deal. It was in Cleveland working with Ben, and it ended up working out great.
Did just being at home help as well?
Sure, doing the hotels is fun too, we did our last record, Resurrection, down in FL. We had a good time, everybody staying in hotels down there, but nowadays, there are more guys getting married and having families. So the more time staying at home really helps out everything all around.
Would you say that there’s an overall theme to the record?
I wouldn’t say, no. It’s just a record of the songs that were coming out at the time, but made us feel good. Just jamming and having fun with it. Infection is just what came out of that.
