The first of your reviews of the Chimaira tour… Keep ’em coming! Thanks going out to Simon Allcorn. CHIMAIRA – OXFORD ZODIAC 02/02/04 Supported By: Stamping Ground Every Time I Die As the room filled up with a vast array of people from the youngest of metal heads to the oldest. You knew everybody was anxious to see the bands ahead of them. As the room filled Every Time I Die appeared onstage and blasted through their set which seemed to stretch for about 30 minutes. Although this is a fairly new band here there was a good percentage of the audience who knew of them and sang along to their set. After ETID cleared off the stage I thought it was time to move forward to the front for second support Stampin’ Ground. They came on stage as the crowd was getting restless and we were all hit with their crushing riffs and angry stage presence. Stampin’ Ground did an awesome job of warming the crowd up for Chimaira. During the break before Chimaira the audience was restless and the wait seemed all too much for some. Out of nowhere the background music was turned off and Chimaira’s Intro music started to blast through the speakers. Ricky the new member of the Chimaira family came on stage first followed by all but Mark Hunter. They stated playing ‘Implements Of Destruction’ which the crowd all cheered for and then as Mark crept out they suddenly ripped into ‘Power Trip’. The crowed went wild and there was a sudden mass of topless bodies going completely insane behind me. After ‘Power Trip’ Chimaira went into another one of their hits ‘Cleansation’. Chimaira kept playing and the crowd kept going wild with the mass of topless bodies increasing all the time. In the middle of ‘Severed’ Mark stopped and introduced the crowd to Ricky Evensand, who then blew the crowd away with one awesome drum solo – it lasted for about 5 minutes, the crowd was left stunned and cheering as they broke back into ‘Severed’. The band continued to slay everybody in the room with an onslaught of songs from their first Roadrunner released album ‘Pass Out Of Existence’. Mark mentioned that the Press Called him ‘Metal Moses and referred back to when Stampin’ Ground had successfully got the crowd to do a wall of death and how because he was ‘Metal Moses’ that it is him that parts the crowd and produces the wall of death. The crowd very willingly parted a hell of a lot more than they did earlier in the night and was getting ready for possibly the biggest and best wall of death the Zodiac had seen. When the music kicked back in the crowd waited for the signal and then… ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE the crowd went insane! I watched from a distance and saw the mass of topless bodies just collide. They ended the night with ‘Pure Hatred’ which as it being their last single was probably one of the most well known songs that they played and went down like a house on fire with EVERYBODY shouting at the top of their lungs I HATE EVERYONE. The crowd roaring with cheers at the end of the show proved that Chimaira had made a lot of peoples nights and will continue doing so on the rest of the tour! Simon Allcorn