Interview by Kris Peters
When Dez Fafara announced that Coal Chamber was on indefinite hiatus in 2016, stating that the success of DevilDriver was taking precedence, the heavy metal community to a man fell under a thick wave of despair.
Bridging the gap between metal and industrial groove with an impossibly infectious tempo, Coal Chamber helped revolutionise the sound of metal, spawning a movement that has rapidly grown into a way of life.
Songs like Loco, Sway, Big Truck, and Oddity are etched into the annals of metal forever, and Coal Chamber became more than a band.
They become an institution.
Fafara has previously steadfastly refused to discuss let alone entertain the thought of a reunion despite repeated pleas from metalheads the world over, appearing to shun any notion of a reunion to the point many stopped even asking.
But public hope and expectation simmered once more in late 2022 when Fafara announced Coal Chamber would reform and play the 2023 Sick New World Festival, and the rest, as they say, is history.
That festival turned into another and then more shows before the dream pairing of Coal Chamber and Mudvayne joined formidable forces to announce a US run that had fans clamoring for tickets for what promised to be the concert event of the year.
With both bands set to include Australia on their tour of domination in February, Fafara sat down with HEAVY for an open and honest discussion about the past, present and future of Coal Chamber.
"Cannot wait," he enthused. "We're excited. We went out with Mudvayne all Summer and did big amphitheaters. It was an amazing package. All the crews and everybody got along really well, so no drama over a seven-week tour was a great thing. Obviously, the pairing works extremely well, so when it was put to us to come over we decided yeah, we cannot say no to this."
Often with tours that generate this much excitement so far out from the shows, it can feel like an anti-climax of sorts by the time the stage lights actually go down, so we ask Fafara what Coal Chamber will be doing to make sure the reality by far exceeds the hype.
"We're gonna bring good production, and we're gonna be on it, man," he promised. "Some of the shows that I saw from the Summer on YouTube were the tightest we have done in our entire lives. So you're getting a very special Coal Chamber right now. We're firing on all cylinders, and we cannot wait to come down. Last night we were texting for two hours straight, and I was laughing hysterically. We were just having such a great time, and that's what you want out of a band. You want a band that enjoys what they're doing, and we're gonna enjoy coming down and giving it 110%."
We push Fafara to tell us more about the recent run of US shows so we can gain even a small insight into what to expect.
"The shows were great," he affirmed. "The Summer was fantastic, and it was great to see the audience out there, which was predominantly the younger generation… I mean people that were 22, 20 years old and born when we broke up (laughs). It's pretty crazy. Some of the biggest bands anyway in the genre have always been Korn etc, but I think us as a pairing coming to Australia will be fantastic shows and everyone should get their tickets right away because it's definitely gonna go clean. They're definitely gonna sell out."
In the full interview, Dez talks more about the recent shows, if he felt nervous the first show back with Coal Chamber, tapping into different sides of his musical personality going from DevilDriver to Coal Chamber, the early days of the band and the scene that inspired them, promoting before internet and tricks of the trade, what drew people to Coal Chamber in the beginning, their album Rivals and how he feels it was 10 years too early, new music and more.
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