Band:	Chimaira
Album:	Pass Out Of Existence
Style:	Groove thrash metal
Release date:	2001
A review by:	Herzebeth

01. Let Go
02. Dead Inside
03. Severed
04. Lumps
05. Pass Out Of Existence
06. Abeo
07. SP Lit
08. Painting The White To Grey
09. Taste My...
10. Rizzo
11. Sphere
12. Forced Life
13. Options
14. Jade
15. Without Mortal Restraint [Japan/UK bonus]

Recently I've been experimenting and hearing new forms of Metal other than Death, Grindcore, Black and all those amazing genres I truly worship and love. Along the way I've come across awesome bands such as Forgotten Tomb, Isis, L'ame Immortelle, etc? then I found Chimaira. Apparently these guys managed to mix Metalcore with Thrash?sounds interesting right? WRONG.

The album begins with "Let Go" which starts with some nice riffs and medium drumming. This is where you think "well maybe this was a good purchase" but everything collapses in just a minute, everything starts to sound all Mallcore and the vocals don't help at all (if this is not hardcore then what is?). That awful chorus "Why am I this way?" is one of the worst musical paragraphs I've ever listened to. In fact, every song on this album has this type of choruses, dull, boring and worst of all predictable. I mean, how convenient and trouble-free is it for a band to create choruses by screaming the name of the song over and over again?

I kind of liked the song "Severed," it has groove all over it (the same as the rest of the album) but it has some nice bridges which make it enjoyable in some parts. Also the drumming is quite interesting and very fast; it gets boring though after you hear that double-bass pounding the same beat more than 3 minutes along with the repetitive ?severed? screams. Another nice song is "Painting the White to Gray." The problem with the banal chorus is still there but this time they focused a lot on the bass-lines so the bass sounds really amazing.

Then we have the lyrics, childish and egocentric lyrics are one of the most detestable things in metal, why should we be part of this immature play? This is long but I feel like I really have to quote this: "Images still in my head of you dead, I wish I could take them away instead, I sit in my room and cry over my loss, Will anything be the same?" Come on, this sounds like a bad soup opera. Or just read this one: "You were never understanding enough, You were never supportive of me, Now I run away from you, Now I hide all this pain." That phrase doesn't even rhyme, and it also sounds a lot like Korn, right?

This album is nothing but crappy and conventional music, awful guitar riffs, the worst vocals I've heard in Metal history, standard drumming and minimalist production (even the audio sucks, the bass sounds louder than the guitar, and sometimes the vocals sound louder than any other instrument). Ok?this was the most painful experience ever, this album royally SUCKS. I don't care if this band is one of those amazing hybrids that mix Metalcore with any Extreme genre, THIS IS NOT THRASH no matter what anyone thinks. Well, what can you expect for 9 bucks really?

Recommended if you like? err? Mallcore? Otherwise skip this one.