Coal Chamber - Chamber Music CD

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 Coal Chamber at its Best
This is the best Coal CHamber album !!!!!
Submitted by wyatt (Osh,Ont,can)
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 Quite a departure from "Coal Chamber"
After Coal Chamber broke out of the underground with their eponymous '97 release, they quickly garnered either praise for creating songs that were excellent for mosh-pits (e.g., "Loco," "Big Truck") or accusations that they were nothing more than a carbon copy of KoRn. Personally, I'm still neutral on the matter, but Coal Chamber's sophomore effort "Chamber Music" seems to capitalize on the electro-goth craze that hit after Orgy covered New Order's "Blue Monday." It's debatable whether Coal Chamber are trend-hopping, considering that they do have ties to Jay Gordon, Amir Derakh, and the gang, but the bottom line is that "Chamber Music" is a very catchy and listenable album. It begins with an orchestral piece (called "Mist"), setting the stage for an album whose main quality is either to be considered its greatest strength or its crippling flaw: the fact that "Chamber Music" got produced to the max. The first actual song, "Tragedy," showcases such lavish production probably more than any other song (aside from Coal Chamber's cover of Peter Gabriel's "Shock the Monkey," perhaps); "Tragedy" also showcases vocalist/lyricist B. Dez Fafara singing more, as opposed to grunting/growling (one critic actually compared him to the Cookie Monster!). He's not necessarily a bad singer but he has an extremely limited range. Still, his singing fits in nicely with other elements of "Chamber Music." He's also improved his lyric-writing (which isn't really saying much because his lyrics throughout "Coal Chamber" neither rhymed nor made much sense). He still slips in the pitfalls of using cliches (e.g.: "Cynics and Christ-like hypocrites, how they stick to you like glue!") and making little sense (e.g.: "I'm placeable innate yet surely substantial to repay your fade away"--what the hell does that mean!). Nonetheless, lyrics are probably not the best aspect of nu-metal, anyway, so I'll just ignore them. Aside from that, the guitar riffs are extremely simple, but not simple/memorable like those of Rammstein. ("El Cu Cuy" is probably the best example of this.) Nevertheless, the first half of "Chamber Music" is very palatable music, and actually has some good hooks. ("Untrue" has a great fundamental hook, by the way.) Midway through the record comes their cover of Peter Gabriel's "Shock the Monkey," which isn't as good as the aforementioned Orgy cover, but it's still cool, nonetheless. After that, though, the record loses steam. Coal Chamber tone things down for "Burgundy" and "Entwined," which not only is uncharacteristic of the band but also doesn't prove to be a foray that really warrants much praise. The album is highlighted by such songs as "Tragedy," "Untrue," "Shock the Monkey," and Fafara's ode to his son: "Tyler's Song," which shows that Dez has a soft side, after all. All in all, "Chamber Music" will please Orgy/Deadsy fans and other aficionados of industrial metal with a tinge of glam, but probably won't ever be regarded as a great album.
Submitted by nhoffhva (Bloomington, Indiana)
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 I don't noe a headline 4 dis
I both the cd and one of my fav songs on it are Mist, Tragedy, El Cu Cuy, Feed My Dreams and My Mercy. The best song is What's In Your Mind.
Submitted by Demanufacture_ (T. ,Ont, Canada)
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 Coal Chamber Is Kewl!
This cd is pretty good but i like there new one better but no matter what coal chamber is still one of my favorite bands out there! The best song on this cd is tragedy it rulz!
Submitted by forsaken649 (uas/florida)
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 my mercy!!!
i really love coal chamber. i think that "chamber music" was great! i really love "my Mercy" thats a great song. and i love "tylers song" because i think its sweet that Dez made a song about his son. and if you havent seen coal chamber in concert, you dont know what your missing!
Submitted by a reviewer (nebraSKA)
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