The Infection

Chimaira | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 21, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ferret
• ASIN: B001TT7UAE
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #116,822 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I have to try to like The Infection more, April 22, 2009

By 

S. Mattes (CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Infection (Audio CD)

I've been a fan of Chimaira since The Impossibility of Reason was released and I've loved everything they've done since then... But here, we have The Infection: over half the songs on this album have painfully slow tempos, and they've dropped their tuning again ("Pass Out of Existence" low).

There are many aspects of The Infection that are similar to their previous releases, such as the musical part; it's often very predictable, such as in "Secrets of the Dead" the last bar after the first chorus, before the second verse, they return with the tuplet theme that is matched by the drums on the snare... Very Chimaira. Rob's solos on The Infection are very reminiscent of the solos on Resurrection, as well (which is not necessarily a bad thing!)

The only other negative comment I have about this album is that there are several very awkward tempo changes in various songs, for example at a couple points in "The Venom Inside," the tempo changes are almost jolting to listen to; it's like someone is shaking you and turning you in the opposite direction unexpectedly.

Negative comments aside, I absolutely love Rob Arnold's style of guitar-playing. He creates the feel for the entire band, and it's certainly present on The Infection. Mark Hunter has taken some new approaches to his vocals, mixing the low-end vocals with his normal high's, and he even takes a whispering-singing approach on "Impending Doom," which is very, very eerie. Andols Herrick has further proven himself as the master of the double bass, which seems to be his main focus, although on this album he does dip his toes a little more into blast beats and several other techniques that have been used scarcely in Chimaira's past.

Overall, this album is good- not great. It takes some conditioning to get used to it, but songs like "Coming Alive" and "On Broken Glass" definitely save The Infection being tossed aside.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A GREAT CHANGE OF PACE:, April 23, 2009

By 

Drew T. Lalewicz "Drew" (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Infection (Audio CD)

Let me first start out by saying I am a long time fan of Chimaira. Living in Buffalo NY, Cleveland OH is like our city's cousin & I've followed this band before they were even signed. They've always strived to make a full cohesive sound to their music through the use of electronics. Now this isnt to say that their " Industrial " in any way, the use of keyboards is means to add depth to their music & also seperate them from alot of standard thrash bands.

Now when Chimaira started out their sound was unique to their genere & some may argue that point, & here is my counter to that. When other bands catergorized under the NU-Metal genere were doing the standard SCREAM, SING, SCREAM, SING formula trying to cash in the Killswitch Engage, Limp Bizkit, Korn, & so many others formulas, Chimaira kept it heavy & fast! The difference between mediocre & great bands is the ability to adapt & grow. Chimaira has done this throughout their entire career. When others tried to mimic there style, Chimaira ran in another direction. And now days when record labels are snatching up every wanna be southern grooved scream band trying to now cash in on Lamb of Gods popularity, Chimaira have again gone in another direction. And it chased them right back to what made them GREAT to begin with! The Infection is everything Chimaira fans loved about this band to begin with (literally) & then some!

The Infection sees Chimaira going back to their roots with darker & more mature sound. The songs are not fast for the sake of being fast & are much more crafted then previous recordings. And on a BIG PLUS side Spicuzza (sorry if I botched the name) has a large role in this CD as he did on their Pass out of Exsistence album. All these things make for a truely bruising & dark album that only Chimaira could have pulled off so perfectly. GREAT ALBUM!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good but lacks speed and emotion, April 23, 2009

By 

L. Bazan "woisdbfi3iwiuw" (Brownsville, Tx USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Infection (Audio CD)

Chimaira has released their fifth studio effort with the Infection.This review is coming from a long time fan that has been with this band since "Pass Out of Existence". This album on it's own regard is a solid effort and has some pretty brutal and low-ended riffing and great drumming and any fan of Meshuggah or Fear Factory will really get into it. Thing is I don't like either of those bands and the bottom line is that the songs are too damn slow. They have focused more on the groove aspect of their music and pretty much cut out the break-neck thrash breaks that I once loved from the self-titled album.I like these songs their great but, I didn't want to hear Throwdown, The Acacia Strain or Hatebreed. I wanted a Chimaira album. A little dissappointed but, still a solid effort. Please guys bring back the thrash that I miss so much.