thePULSEon The Good, The Bad, and the Brutal
By Jillian Locke
Two bands. Two shows. Years worth of history. Chimaira pummeled The Palladium with Once Beloved, Divine Heresy, and At that Remains on February 2nd, and 36CrazyFists are looking to rock the hell out of the venue on March 27th with DevilDriver, Napalm Death, Walls of Jericho, and In Vitro.
Rob Arnold of Chimaira and Brock Lindow of 36 Crazyfists represent two polar opposite bands. Chimaira took their name from a mythological creature with three heads. To me, Chimaira looks like six people coming together to form a giant middle finger. 36Crazyfists took their name from a Jackie Chan movie and are a melodic hard rock outfit. Chimaira formed in 1998, while 36CF manifested in 1994. Chimaira hails from Cleveland, OH, and 36CF originated in Anchorage, AK. Dissimilar beginnings and namesakes aside, though, both bands have had their share of ups and downs, and both have a very promising future ahead of them.
“You gotta keep on keepin’ on,” says Brock Lindow of 36 Crazyfists, who have just finished their heaviest, most in-depth music tapestry of their almost 15 year career. “The record’s done.” Lindow is speaking of 36Crazyfists 2008 Ferret Records release “The Tide and Its Takers.” The new album is a culmination of 36Crazyfists’ years of hard work and experience ~ a fact that is very evident after Lindow explained its theme: “Nothing stays forever. There are waves of good and waves of bad, tough times and great times, but things come and go, and that’s the cycle of life.”
36 again chose to work with trusted mixer Andy Snead. “Andy has mixed the last three records. We’re not the most brutal band, but we do have brutal parts, and we wanted a metal guy to make it as metal as possible,” says Lindow. What makes this album unique, however, is that this time around guitarist Steve Holt took sole control of the producing reigns. “It’s awesome. It’s definitely heavy, lots of metal stuff. I also feel it covers a lot of ground musically. The heavy parts of this record are the heaviest we’ve ever done.”
Chimaira can certainly relate to the cycles of life and taking the good with the bad. “We chose the name Chimaira because the mythological creature represented disagreeing animals that come together to form one monster, which is what we thought about all of us as individuals coming together. We form a metal monster,” Arnold reflects. After overcoming personal problems within the band (losing and regaining drummer Andy Herrick), Arnold feels that they’ve come back full force. “‘Resurrection’ is a progression,” Arnold says of their 2007 Ferret Records release. “Through time and experience comes better musicianship, better gelling when we’re writing ~ all the factors to making a record that’s our best to date. We’re rejuvenated and re-energized.” When I asked Arnold to compare Chimaira 1998 to Chimaira 2008, his answers illustrated the steady, natural progression of a band that’s not going anywhere any time soon. “Chimaira ’98: excited. Adventurous. Determined. Chimaira ‘08: we’re still excited, still determined, but we’re more accomplished and experienced now. There’s a long road ahead of us, and we still have a lot of fight in us. We still have dreams that need to be reached.”
Be a witness to the continual growth and progression of these two staple bands ~ listen to the passion and fury running thick through “Resurrection” and be sure to hit up “The Tide and Its Takers” on April 29th.
www.myspace.com/chimaira
www.chimaira.com
www.myspace.com/36crazyfists
www.36crazyfists.com
photos: #1 – 36CrazyFists, #2 – Chimaira
