CHAMBERS EVOKE THE SPIRIT OF DOOMRIDERS, EXCEPT BETTER

I can’t be the only one who was a tad bit disappointed with Doomriders’ 2009 album Darkness Comes Alive. It certainly wasn’t bad — au contraire, it was just fine, but I found it to be a bit long and lacking the hooks that made Black Thunder (and in particular its title track) so special. Truth is I just wanted every song to be a new version of “Black Thunder,” but that didn’t work out so well for me. And let’s be honest; any project that in some way involves a member of Converge will always have the metal blogosphere swinging from its nuts like a baboon in a banana factory, but this most recent Doomriders affair just wasn’t worth the hype.

Enter Chambers, a New Jersey outfit who remind me a whole lot of Doomriders’ blend of blues rawk boogie and hardcore energy. Noisecreep is streaming the Chambers song “Ripper” and it’s a doozy; Chambers don’t invoke the blatant Thin Lizzy twin-lead attack that’s a benchmark of Doomriders’ sound (at least not on this track) but they do use a scorching guitar solo as a critical piece of the song in a way that Doomriders don’t. The track is barely 2 minutes long, but it’s a pure shot of adrenaline delivered quickly and in just the right dose.

“Ripper” gets me all sorts of pumped to hear what else Chambers’ new record Old Love has to offer; I’ll find out on June 22nd when the record drops as a digital-only release (hooray future!). Listen to more Chambers at their official website.

-VN