After Chimaira’s last album “The Age Of Hell”, there were a couple of personnel changes. Well, actually only frontman Mark Hunter remained. Instead of calling it a day, Hunter borrowed half of Dååth’s line-up and forged ahead.

“Crown Of Phantoms” is the result of said forging ahead and on it we simply hear more of the same. Chimaira still sounds like a typical product of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal with some Fear Factory influences mixed in. And while it’s definitely a decent album made by guys who know how to handle their instruments, at no point does it make much of a lasting impression. It’s loud with lots of shredding and blistering solos but none of the songs stick. Maybe Hunter should indeed have called it a day? We’ll see when the next album comes out but for now things aren’t looking good.