Chimaira’s Resurrection doesn’t take but two seconds to put a boot to your throat. And only half a minute later, the Cleveland sextet has seized a leading role in the new wave of American thrash. Since 1998, the band has delivered increasingly strong albums, leading up to 2005’s self-titled LP. Unimpressed, the band’s former label, Roadrunner, graciously let it go, but the experience left Chimaira with enough red-hot rage for another four albums.

Original drummer Andols Herrick rejoins the band, playing rapid-fire bursts like he spent the hiatus receiving cybernetic implants. On artillery assaults such as “Resurrection” and “Empire,” guitarist Rob Arnold inches closer and closer to hard-won-guitar-hero status, lunging from wildfire solos to cast-iron riffage. Singer Mark Hunter is a metal motivational speaker, haunted by the band’s past and evangelical about its future. “Now we are invincible,” he growls on the title track — and you’d better believe it.

This article appears in Feb 28 – Mar 6, 2007.