Now I have waited years to see Chimaira, after missing them on the tour in support of their self-titled album. Then their lack of UK dates since moving to Nuclear Blast means I have not, until now, had a chance to see them live. So when I heard they were playing the 500 capacity Jilly’s Rockworld I knew I had to get to this gig. 

Opening up the night, after about ten minutes of problems with microphones, were Dead Shape Figure from Finland. They were a pretty brutal group, combining thrash metal with equal amounts of death metal and modern metalcore stuff, and they had some mighty beards to match. They ended their set with a cover of Machine Head’s “Davidian”, apparently as I really couldn’t tell that it was a Machine Head cover, I’m not to sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. 

Next up were The Sorrow, an Austrian quartet who were melodic but metallic and really got the crowd moving. They sounded like a heavier version of German metalcore merchants Caliban, even managing to get the crowd to do a wall of death during the last song, and that despite there being several pillars in the middle of the dance floor at Jilly’s. Following The Sorrow were the evening's final support act, Maroon who hail from Eastern Germany and they really were a blitzkrieg of noise, sounding like Coal Chamber and Himsa having a fight while CombiChrist watch and laugh. 

Finally it came to Chimaira, veterans of the touring circuit and surprisingly for a Monday night rock out Jilly’s was quite full, not sold out which was a shame, but still the crowd gave it their all and proved that Chimaira still have an influence in the UK. Opening with “Pure Hatred”, the song they usually close shows with, sent the crowd into a frenzy causing circle pits and crowd surfing from the start. At this point the security  in Jilly’s proved themselves slightly strange as well, with the guards actually throwing people who managed to get on stage back into the pit rather than the normal escorting them off side stage.

Even after just two songs, the chants of “Chimaira!” “Chimaira!” “Chimaira!” that were ringing through Jillys were overwhelming and left vocalist Mark Hunter remaining stunned on the stage, but then they tore through “Power Trip”, a song with the immortal chorus of “F*ck your power trip!”  and that was enough to see the pit flare up once again. Mixing things up somewhat, Chimaira then delivered “Nothing Remains” from their self-titled album as well as newer efforts like “The Flame” and “Worthless”, from “Resurrection” and even an older track or two made the cut as tracks from the “Impossibility Of Reason” album, “Cleansation” and “Implements Of Destruction” were served up to the frantic Manchester faithful.

Playing the epic “Six” was a fantastic idea, it saw vocalist Mark Hunter pick up a guitar to deliver a three guitar medley as well as Keyboard player Chris Spicuzza breaking out his Theremin to add to the carnage. They finally ended the night with the metallic stomp that is “The Dehumanizing process” and the amazing single “Resurrection”. On this evidence it would be hard to argue against the fact that Chimaira are one of the greatest live bands on the metal circuit today, let’s hope that with their new album out in 2009, they come back to our shores much sooner.

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