There have been a couple of Chimaira vinyl pressings in recent memory that I largely ignored because my understanding based on what I’ve heard is that the band had almost nothing to do with them, and that seems like a bummer.
But the Ohio NWOAHM band has just announced the first-ever vinyl pressing of their 2001 debut, Pass Out of Existence, and they’re clearly very much involved in it… in fact, The PRP says that fans voted for this Chimaira album in particular to get a vinyl edition. That’s both surprising (Pass Out of Existence is arguably the band’s weakest album) and not surprising (art is constantly being reconsidered, and folks were kids just getting into metal when Existence came out are in their thirties and feeling nostalgic now).
The Pass Out of Existence super-duper-extra-special-deluxe vinyl edition will naturally include some cool bells and whistles, including a previously-unreleased live recording from 2002, a previously-unreleased demo of the song “Taste My…”, the band’s cover of The Cure’s “Fascination Street,” and remixes of the album highlights “Severed,” “Sp Lit,” and “Painting the White to Grey.”
Says frontman Mark Hunter of the vinyl:
“Twenty years ago, we set out to make an album that would make us ‘huge,’ and we’d become one of the ‘biggest metal bands in the world.’ I don’t think our story is rare, and like most with delusions of grandeur, we failed. We all had high expectations when Pass Out dropped. The label, managers, and of course, the 6 of us.
“The album debuted, and we got slaughtered on message boards. It seemed like our hardcore fans hated it. The album also stuttered out of the gate. Our peers had sold a lot more albums first week, and this gave everyone pause. There were great tours. Slayer, Machine Head, Fear Factory… but after our abysmal first-week sales, the support dried up. We went out and toured on our own to anyone that would show up.
“I remember we had a sick show in Duluth, playing to about 9 people. To make a long story short, we felt like Rocky at the end of part 1 when we finished this album cycle. *Spoiler alert – We went the distance, got our asses kicked, and lost. But just like Rocky, it wasn’t all bad, and we spawned a bunch of fantastic sequels. More importantly, we found out years later how much this album influenced some of the top deathcore bands out there.
“I remember being on tour once and hearing Zach from Whitechapel play the riff from ‘Taste My…’ I was dumbfounded. Y’all like THAT album???? At the time it still wasn’t enough to wash the stink of losing away. This album felt like an old high school yearbook photo when your mom made you wear that awful sweater from Sears, and your hair looks like something straight from mulletsgalore.com.
“My advice to young and upcoming musicians would be to have zero expectations. Then you won’t feel like you got punched in the genitals repeatedly. Here we are about to celebrate 20 years. My attitude has come full circle. I am super proud of this album. But it’s the fans that helped me realize its significance.
“I’ve been streaming for the past year on Twitch and having the opportunity to interact with fans and hear how much this record means to them made me realize we did, in fact, win. We had a rare opportunity to remix some of the fan favorites from the album. We hadn’t quite developed our sound yet but now we can put that familiar ‘Chimaira’ spin on them. Hope you dig ‘em!
“Also, we included the demo for ‘Taste My…‘ I don’t think anyone has heard this. To top it off there is a live show from Orlando that is straight from the soundboard. It is pretty sweet to hear how aggressive we were. We’re too old for that shit now. Thank you all that voted for this release and made it happen. Enjoy!”
Pre-order the limited and individually foil-stamp numbered Pass Out of Existence vinyl here before it passes out of existence on September 16.