What is the story behind this amazing band?
Coal Chamber formed in Los Angeles in the Spring of 1994, the band quickly recorded a self-produced demo and set out to put their name out in L.A. Word of mouth led to packed shows at famous Hollywood clubs such as The Whiskey A Go-Go and The Roxy. Quickly, Coal Chamber were became becoming an underground fave. Coal Chamber mixed hip hop, punk, goth and hardcore influences with a thick, molten, down-tuned rifling style, they were marinating their sound, and sweating away in a dark rehearsal room at the same time as then-unknowns Korn were doing the same in Orange County.
In the Fall of '95, Dino Cazares of Fear Factory and producer Ross Robinson brought Coal Chamber to the attention of Roadrunner VP of A&R, Monte Conner. Coonor was speechless by "Loco" (the demo's opener) and amazed by Dez's schizophrenic vocals, Conner immediately offered them a deal. Life was suddenly easy. They were on the rise. And then, it all came to a halt. According to Dez: "I met my soulmate, and she couldn't deal with the hours, the people I had to work with, just none of it was copasetic to her. I left the band because of her and I left it for almost half a year. But I always missed it. I just missed the music, missed performing, being with my friends and making music with them. I spent most of my days just in a haze, not really inspired anymore. Then my friend Meegs came knocking on my door one day and said, 'Look, none of the singers we've tried have been working out. We really had magic, let's go for it again' and the rest is history."
Regrouped by Spring 1995, Dez's decision to commit to Coal Chamber made a "no-looking-back" attitude that fueled passion and fire into their music. Meanwhile, on stage, the band's performances might better have been called ritual possession, or exorcism-- as if each show were an attempt to simultaneously reconcile the past and set a tone for the future, with the members visually switching their appearances every few months, like writers racing to catch up with their thoughts. With Coal Chamber no longer a question of "if" but instead "how good and how soon", they put their urgency and determination together with matured perspectives gained from their time away.
The Roadrunner deal was finally inked during Christmas of '95 and the band were faced with the decision of finding the right person to lay their magic down to two inch. Never afraid to take chances and try fresh ideas, that right person turned out to be two, as the band gave a shot to long time L.A. scenesters, Jay Gordon, a local musician, and Jay Baumgardner, house engineer at NRG Recording. These two were starving for their first big break and had as much to prove to the world as the band. By the time the NRG sessions were completed 30 days later, the band were emotionally and mentally drained, and the production duo had proven they had the goods to compete with the big boys. Explains Dez, "The day I started recording my vocals, my wife left me. She left me in the driveway of my home, taking the dog and everything I fuckin' owned. Everything I fuckin' thought was real." Asking him "Are you alright?" before she took off, Dez's response, "Do I seem alright to you?," was being laid to tape in a flood of tears 10 minutes later in the studio. Those words becoming the new chorus to "Unspoiled." "Making this record was the most difficult thing any of us has ever gone through. We were challenged physically, mentally and emotionally, and it was pure hell, especially on my end. I needed to rid myself of all this emotion so that I could feel alright again. This LP is like a closure to that part of my life, and a new beginning at the same time. That was a very turbulent and chaotic period. But you know what we've since come to realize? We thrive on that. That's what drives us and gives us our edge. That's what keeps it real."
The band spent 18 grueling months of touring playing to the fans to get the music out without the help of radio or MTV... coal chamber put the self-titled album in near-gold status. To be gold a few months later. Coal Chamber's Spooky Core music became an outlet for many fans."Kids kind of live through us. When they come to our shows, they can wear makeup and all that, which they couldn't do normally. When they come see us, they can release all their tension and be whatever they wanna be," says Mike. Coal Chamber played with a lot of different bands over those 18 months including: Pantera, Type O Negative, Sevendust, Human Waste Project, Life of Agony, Megadeth, Powerman 5000, Machinehead, and many more. They also played three years on Ozzfest.
Finally after Ozzfest 1998, Coal Chamber decided to head off in the studio to make their second album. After taken a well deserved break, the band started to record what would be known as "Chamber Music". The Album mixed different elements into the "Spooky Core" sound. It shows the growth of the band emotionally and musically. "This album explores an entire range of emotions. It's very three-dimensional. It explores love, happiness, pain, different kinds of hate, different kinds of coveting, by both yourself and other people," says Dez. "Every band goes through their first record feeling the same way, because you have all that energy inside you, waiting to come out for the first time," agrees Mikey. "But we've grown from there..."
After many changes in the Coal Chamber family... some deaths of good friends and Rayna now married and pregnant with the first "Chamber Baby"... the release of "Chamber Music" came in September. The album contains Meegs producing guitar sounds unlike anything heard before on earth, while strains of Gothic, classical, and electronic music all find their way into Coal Chamber's audioscape. Songs like the poignant "Tyler's Song" (written for Dez's young son) reach a new emotional and melodic height for the band, while "Untrue" and "Not Living" set new standards for the heavy, aggressive feel that is unique to the quartet. "We've still kept our heaviness, but we used a lot of different instruments, from an orchestra to keyboards to piano," adds Meegs. "This record definitely separates us from the whole new school' of heavy rock bands out there. `My Mercy' is definitely one of those songs where everyone is gonna go, `what?' It doesn't sound anything like us, but at the same time, it does. That song has Aimee Echo (ex-Human Waste Project now theSTART) and Elijah Blue Allman (Deadsy) singing on it, a string section, a melodic guitar part - it's a beautiful, creepy, dark song that's gonna freak people out... in a good way."
Coal Chamber premiered their new songs for the first time live in 9 months in Philadelphia, PA on July 11th, 1999. The band was the opening act on the Insane Clown Posse tour and playing with new temp bassist (while Rayna was having Kayla), Nadja Peulen. Luckily, I was there to experience the show first hand. The band was nervous, but ended up performing an incredible set. The crowd loved them and I was left speechless once again by Coal Chamber. The tour ended shortly only playing one other show in Pittsburgh before Coal Chamber left the tour (I am sure most people know about the CC vs. ICP case). But, it wasn't long before the band was back on the road with the "Living La vita Loco" tour featuring Slipknot, Machinehead, and Amen. The tour cross the US selling many venues out. There Coal Chamber headed in England where magazines like Kerrang and Metal Hammer had always support the band.
"Chamber Music" was a hit... making the top 10 list in albums released in 1999. But in the US... Coal Chamber hit the road with their own brand of "Road Rage" CO-headlining with Type O negative and opening bands; Deadlights and Full Devil Jacket. The tour has currently ended and Coal Chamber are on a month break before heading out again with Sevendust and Deadlights. Then touring this summer with the festival "Tattoo the Earth". I suggest checking Coal Chamber out of these next tours... Seeing Coal Chamber live is a fabulous experience.. experiences I will never forget.
