Band:	Chimaira
Album:	The Impossibility Of Reason
Style:	Groove thrash metal
Release date:	2003
Guest review by:	Passenger

Disc I
01. Cleansation
02. The Impossibility Of Reason
03. Pictures In The Gold Room
04. Power Trip
05. Down Again
06. Pure Hatred
07. The Dehumanizing Process
08. Crawl
09. Stigmurder
10. Eyes Of A Criminal
11. Overlooked
12. Implements Of Destruction
13. Army Of Me [Björk cover] [bonus]

Disc II [Collectors Edition bonus]
01. Indifferent To Suffering
02. Without Moral Restraint
03. Fascination Street
04. Let Go [demo]
05. Pass Out Of Existence [demo]
06. Severed [demo]
07. Forced Life [demo]
08. Dead Inside [demo]
09. Power Trip [live]
10. Cleansation [live]

It's hard to avoid talking about Metalcore inside the scene these days. Contagious enough to become popular but underground enough to not be as despised as Nu Metal, it has been a big surprise for me too. This fusion of styles doesn't establishes very rigid limits to progressions or simple deviations in a song, giving a band space to show all their instrumental potential and musical originality and please a vast number of listeners.

Being a recent movement its exploration is even more exciting and, therefore, many are the bands coming up from everywhere, full of anger and will to create. Chimaira wasn't one of the first ones but their hard work has settled them quickly as one of the top references. They only have two albums and the first one can hardly be considered a winner, which means that "The Impossibility Of Reason" has to be a really killer release.

Between the thirteen tracks that Chimaira offer us there really isn't much to complain about, not even if you try really hard to do so. Mark hunter screams very harsh and, occasionally, slows down, like in "Pictures Of The Gold Room", to sound similar to Deftones' vocalist (when he's not rapping or yelling but actually singing). About the drums, it's interesting how most Metalcore drummers tend to use similar techniques. Obviously this wouldn't happen if it wasn't appropriate and here every single beat is in the right place. Though there's a mention to a member in charge of electronic arrangements this side doesn't show up as much as I was expecting, and this is a good thing. There's the brilliant keyboard introduction for "Down Again" and that's about it on relevant interventions. Finally, the guitar duo love good riffs as much as any big Thrash fan. For example, "Power Trip" is simply destructive, as fast and furious as this can be. Besides, you'll be surprised with the amount of solos they pull off, all really good ones.

Well, the ingredients are tasty and so is the final result. This album is full of energy and catchiness, Hardcore rage and Thrash discipline. Many tracks have unexpected sections that surprise us in different times, from the slow distortions near the end of "Pictures In The Gold Room" to the groovy verses of "Crawl". However, if there's something that truly made me jump for its audacity, shake my head and applaud was "Implements Of Destruction". First minute and a half is an intro with acoustic guitars only. Then, that part starts disappearing, like when you're on the mobile phone and begin losing signal until the call goes down, and an incredibly epic "Ride The Lightning"-like (song from Metallica) riffage sets in and takes control of the song. From there on it's ten minutes of melodic and intelligent instrumental discharge. There's two ways of viewing this track: either you think it's very pretentious as they don't have Metallica or Dream Theater's "resources", or take it as a brave attitude of admiration of musical virtuosity and incentive to its presence in modern Metal. There's no superhuman brilliancy, the song is a relaxed and vast easy listen.

"The Impossibility Of Reason" justifies the compliments made and deserves recognition. Chimaira succeeded on making a balanced and solid extreme Metal work with fresh "outside" leanings with the right underground attitude and charisma and I sincerely hope they can keep this great form.