Recap Chimaira at Majestic Theatre

Decider arrived at the Majestic Theatre Thursday night in the middle of a seemingly endless sound check from Chicago metalcore outfit Born Of Osiris. One particularly frustrated bozo in a Dimmu Borgir T-shirt and cutoff shorts began screaming at the band: “BOO! You are wasting my time!” After a few more minutes, the impatient prick’s insults began to include the n-word, which was sadly directed at eight-string guitar virtuoso Tosin Abasi (who is taking a break from his impressive Animals As Leaders project to fill in on guitar for Born Of Osiris’ summer tour). Thankfully, within a few minutes the lights dimmed, the band jumped the stage, and Abasi began effortlessly shredding a hole through the racist heckler’s face with set-opener “Empires Erased.”

While trying to focus on Abasi’s blurry hands proved quite amusing, the rest of the band had a tough time recapturing the blistering precision of 2007’s The New Reign and 2009’s A Higher Place. As vocalist Ronnie Canizaro’s hefty growl rolled over the colliding riffs of the two guitarists, drummer Cameron Losch consistently lost the beat. This made it impossible for bassist David Darocha to properly lock into the band’s random beat-drops and odd-time changes. The only time the band seemed to truly have it together was during its exhausting onslaught of unimaginative, Meshuggah-lite, chug-chug breakdowns. During these breakdowns, the band would do what appeared to be synchronized poop-squats. However, the mild sloppiness didn’t stop the young pit ninjas from swinging their arms and sending spinning karate kicks toward an invisible army of angry step-dads. After Born Of Osiris wrapped up its set with “Bow Down,” Winds Of Plague hit the stage with a tighter, albeit less original take on metalcore. Each tune was loaded with one to three breakdowns, which shifted the band's otherwise guttural assault into a predictable dance party.

Before headliners Chimaira took the stage, several fans stood outside the Majestic and screamed the band’s lyrics at each other to get “pumped up.” Soon, Chimaira walked on to what seemed like the same, cheesy sample-played-over-a-droning-synthesizer intro that the openers had used. Opening with the air-tight syncopation of “On Broken Glass,” Chimaira wasted no time hammering away at the crowd with its low-end riffing and Andols Herrick’s punishing drum blasts. Mark Hunter’s throat-shredding growls crawled over the thick guitar lines of Rob Arnold and the long-haired Matt DeVries. With many of the fist-swinging hardcore kids gone, the metal fans were free to excitedly push and shove each other across the floor.

While the punishing set pulled generously from 2009’s The Infection, Chimaira stretched pretty far back through its discography, even pulling out a pummeling rendition of “Let Go” from 2001’s Pass Out Of Existence. While DeVries chunked out most of the rhythm guitar, Arnold proved himself to be more dexterous, shredding his way through several face-melting guitar solos with ease. Hunter thanked the crowd endlessly between songs, encouraged everyone to “have fun,” and spent a lot of time talking about how heavy his band is. Each tune was backed up by synchronized lighting that became blinding and obnoxious by the end of the show. Chimaira surprisingly didn’t play an encore, closing its set with the juxtaposition of thunderous riffing and terrible, angst-ridden lyrics in “Pure Hatred.” As Chimaira waved goodbye to the audience, the sound-guys did their best to chase all of the metal kids out by playing The Fabulous Thunderbirds’ “Tuff Enuff” over the house speakers.