Coal Chamber - Chamber Music
Grade: B
By Jess Redmon
 Coal Chamber's debut album dripped in power, wrath and promise, though lacked a
lot of originality. "Chamber Music" takes Coal Chamber closer to greatness with their
second installment in the hypnotizing hybrid tale of gothic ideals meets metal pain.
Songs like "What's In Your Mind" and "El Cu Cuy" bring a presence of undeniable
power, overcoming animal angst and dense layers of distorted guitar slashing. "Tyler's
Song" is a thrash-pop frenzy of tight metal backing, melodic chorus breaks and an
overall more commercial friendly feel that finely represents the new album. Coal
Chamber have always have been degraded for being the spawn of Korn and a musical
copycat. In "Chamber Music" they still have that cold and precise metal tuning of early
Korn and an overall sound that really isn't incredibly new. They're still not a band who
breaks a lot of territory, but still their songs are still some of the best in the genre. In an
incredibly cliche move, they teamed up with Ozzy for a cover of Peter Gabriel's "Shock
The Monkey." The cover actually adds a lot to the song, in the way of making it a Coal
Chamber song, so it's not really something you can bash them around too much. Ozzy
vocals most of the track and it fits in quite well with the more melodic textures of
"Chamber Music." For those who are newly introduced to Coal Chamber, meet one of
neo-metal's most powerful and gifted bands. For fans, expect more timeless gothic-metal to raise the band to another level. "Chamber Music" isn't a work of great new art,
but with style and tight craftsmanship it rocks with the best around
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