Listen to reformed Coal Chamber, “I.O.U. Nothing”

This is Coal Chamber.

The band was, for better or for worse, part of the ‘nu-metal’ school of bands that broke big in the late 90’s (Korn, System of a Down, Staind, Deftones, and poster boys for why the genre is so maligned… Limp Bizkit).

As the sound went out of style, Coal Chamber found themselves with numerous member squalls and on stage meltdowns before calling it quits in 2003.

Frontman Dez Fafara went on to front the band DevilDriver to some success.

Apparently, hatchets are buried and the band has recorded a new album called, “Rivals” (Napalm Records) to be released on May 19th.

Fafara comments: “Rivals can be your inner demons, your inner self, exterior factors that are negative influences on your life. But either way, they’ve gotta go. And that’s kind of what this whole thing is about. If you go inside the record and you listen to the lyrics, it’s about expelling demons and getting rid of negative influences in and around your life.”

On the writing process: “We locked ourselves in a room and just waited until it was very tight. Then [the other guys in the band] would throw me songs and I would throw them back lyrics, and that’s how it came together. It’s a very democratic process when it comes to COAL CHAMBER and the writing. And I think they did a great job. It was extremely freeing to do this record, ’cause I could use anything I want — I could use high screams, low screams, clean vocals, whisper tracks… all sorts of stuff — which was very freeing as an artist to do. It was a great time to record. And I think you can feel that within the record. We didn’t record with a click track, so [there are] ebbs and flows. Nothing was copied an pasted; everything was sung. I hit most of the stuff the first time I did the vocals, and the music itself is really raw and has a really great feel to it. I think it has a fresh feel to it. Don’t expect a throwback record. It’s not gonna sound like a throwback record. It’s us moving forward.”

Hear the results…

Here is some ‘classic’ Coal Chamber.