Guitarist Rob Arnold (Chimaira, Ex-Six Feet Under) Launches New Band, The Disaster

Guitarist Rob Arnold (Chimaira, ex-Six Feet Under) sure has been keeping busy: having already released a surprise album by The Elite — also featuring drummer Austin D’Amond (DevilDriver, Bleed the Sky, Chimaira) — back in September, Arnold is now preparing another out-of-nowhere release for this Friday, December 21. This one is called Healing Process, and it’s the debut album from The Disaster, which The PRP tells me is “a long gestating project… which finds him paired with [vocalist] Matt Demko.”

The duo’s first single, “Baptized by Fire,” is available for your streaming pleasure below. Despite Arnold’s pedigree, this is definitely the most melodic, least-brutal music with which he’s been involved to date; Demko’s vocals are about 180 degrees away from those of Mark Hunter and Chris Barnes, and Arnold’s guitar tone is, fittingly, on the cleaner side. Having said that, it’s still recognizably a Rob Arnold riff — it’s not hard at all to hear how this might have been re-jiggered slightly to be on a Chimaira album. So fans should definitely give it a chance, even if it’s not exactly as aggro as “Power Trip” or “Nothing Remains.”

Enjoy: