The heavy metal band Chimaira formed in the middle American city of Cleveland, Ohio in 1998. Their style of groove metal has led them into the popular mainstream heavy metal genre, which has spawned from their many influences of industrial metal as well as death metal.

Chimaira

Maybe I’m glad we don’t speak anymore. I feel better now. Now that you’re gone.

Middle America

The heavy metal band Chimaira formed in the middle American city of Cleveland, Ohio in 1998. Their style of groove metal has led them into the popular mainstream heavy metal genre, which has spawned from their many influences of industrial metal as well as death metal. Some of their first influences are the legendary heavy metal band Megadeth and the every popular Pantara, whose lead singer Dime Bag Darrell was killed by a fan at one of his concerts.

Getting their Groove On

Jason Hagar, who was a rhythm guitarist, and Mark Hunter, who is a singer, decided that it was time to begin playing music that was similar to their favorite bands. The duo added Andrew Ermlick on bass and drum player Jason Genaro to make a complete band. Within a very short time, the group decided that it was time to add guitarist Rob Arnold to their line up to give the string section a more thick sound. Their first demo was recorded in 1999 in the month of January.

It was decided at this time that their drummer was not up to speed and they made the switch to another drummer from the former band called Sanctum, who would come in and play drums for the revised demo. Their first demo did not gain much attention, which prompted the group to create another demo later in 1999, which did much better and began receiving the attention of many college radio stations in the latter part of the year on in to the turn of the century. They would eventually become signed to the record label of Roadrunner records.

Gaining Ground

After doing some touring around their hometown and at many local college hotspots, the band went in to the studio to record their first full length album called This Present Darkness and was released to the public late in 2000. However, their first actual debut album under Roadrunner Records would be the album called Pass Out of Existence. The band quickly formed a tour in support of their debut album eventually replacing rhythm guitarist Jason Hager when he found out that he would soon be a father.

After the band toured for the better part of 2002, they returned home and after a short break went back into the studio to record their next full length album called The Impossibility of Reason. A tour quickly followed the release of the album and shortly after the drummer Andols Herrick left the band for reasons of constantly being on the road. He would eventually pursue a music degree at a four year university. In 2005, the band was again fueled for a new tour following the release of their self titled album Chimaira.

After closing their long time record label with Roadrunner Records, the band signed on to Ferret Records in 2006 as this would give them more options for their distribution rights within the United States. The band would go on to release Resurrection in March of 2007. With a renewal of some old members to the band, they felt excited about their new opportunities and would join the Dethklok tour as a special guest in 2008. The band began posting clips of their new up and coming album which had clips that were available as free music downloads from their website.

Present Day

The band has continued to work on new albums and release the single Secrets of the Dead, which will be off their most recent album. Their latest album was called The Infection and was released on April 21 of 2009. This was their first album that was release to the international community and it would reach number thirty on the Billboard 200. The band is continuing to tour all across the world in places such as Australia, Europe, Canada, and the United States and have even played in the Middle Eastern City of Dubai. Their show on December 27 of 2009 was taped and will be released on DVD sometime this year.

Did You Know

• Chimaira has played with new age metal bands such as Godsmack.

• The band’s name is a Greek mythological term for monster.

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