Coal Chamber is the debut studio album by American nu metal band Coal Chamber. It was released on February 11, 1997, by Roadrunner Records and contains the single "Loco". The special edition of the album contains the bonus tracks "Headstones and the Walking Dead", "Big Truck (Hand-On-Wheel Mix)", "Pig (Demo)", "Sway (Demo)", "Unspoiled (Demo)", and "Loco (Demo)" (all of which are available on Giving the Devil His Due). The DVD features two of the band's concerts, a live video of "Loco", and the music video of "Loco".

It has been certified gold by the RIAA, with an excess of 500,000 copies in the United States and is the band's most successful album. Three singles were released on the album: "Loco", "Big Truck", and "Sway". "Big Truck" was released in 1997, while "Loco" and "Sway" were released in 1998. "Loco", "Big Truck", "Sway", "Oddity", and "Clock" were included on their greatest hits album.

Background and recording

Coal Chamber was formed in Los Angeles in 1992 by vocalist Dez Fafara and guitarist Miguel "Meegs" Rascón, originally under the name She's in Pain. They met after simultaneously putting out ads looking for a guitarist and vocalist, respectively, and bonded over a mutual love for the Sisters of Mercy. After a few shows, they adopted their present name in 1993. Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares also recommended the band to Conner. Roadrunner subsequently offered the band a record deal, but as they were negotiating, Fafara left Coal Chamber due to disagreements with his wife. Rascón visited Fafara and asked him to return to Coal Chamber, who became active again by spring 1995. Conner was unaware that Coal Chamber had reunited until Dino Cazares gave him a new demo from the band during the mixing sessions of Fear Factory's Demanufacture (1995), after which he reconnected with the band. He later said that the band "ran away" from him and selected Gordon and Baumgardner instead because people were comparing them to Korn. The band knew of Gordon through Rascón, and Baumgardner was the owner of NRG Studios. The song "Sway" includes the line, "the roof the roof the roof is on fire we don't need no water let the motherfucker burn burn motherfucker burn", which is taken from the song "The Roof Is on Fire" by Rock Master Scott & the Dynamic Three. The interlude "Amir of the Desert" was written about Amir Derakh, the album's engineer. Fafara said the song came about from the band "fucking around one afternoon and I was stoned." which also led to Sharon Osbourne becoming their manager. Mark Palmer, the manager of Roadrunner's UK branch,<!-- role as given here: https://noisecreep.com/monte-conner-nuclear-blast/ --> said that the album's buzz was "something we haven't experienced since the first Machine Head record, Burn My Eyes [(1994)]". The album debuted and peaked at number 76 on the UK Albums Chart. The album was selling 5,000 copies per week at its peak, and continued to sell consistently for three years.

To support the album, Coal Chamber toured heavily throughout the entirety of 1997, sharing the stage with artists such as Anthrax, Danzig, Downset., Faith No More, Grip Inc., Helmet, Machine Head, Pantera, Sevendust, Soilent Green and Type O Negative. In the summer of 1997, they performed at Ozzfest, their second consecutive appearance at the festival. In October 1997, "Loco" was serviced to radio stations in the United States. A music video for the song was filmed with director Nathan 'Karma' Cox, a longtime friend of the band. Like Gordon and Baumgardner, Cox had not directed a video before.

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Coal Chamber received mixed reviews upon its release. Johnathan Selzer of Melody Maker acknowledged that whilst Coal Chamber could be accused of being "copyists" of Korn and Sepultura, the elements taken from those artists (and others) were all "means to an end" and that the album ultimately "rocks". Kerrang! Mike Peake considered the album "the biggest, meanest, heaviest noise [...] in months", though noted it was "not perfect—it's hardly what you'd call new, and it does lack the production punch of something like Demanufacture". Ollie of In Music We Trust singled out Dez Fafara as the album's star quality, calling him "a born frontman" and "probably what has made me so addicted to this album." However, Bromley noted a difference with Coal Chamber was the band's strong sense of groove.

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Retrospective reviews remain similarly mixed. Reviewing the 2005 CD and DVD reissue for AllMusic, Johnny Loftus labelled "Loco", "Sway" and "Oddity" as "classics of a late-'90s L.A. metal scene that included Korn, Deftones, Fear Factory, and System of a Down." He goes on to say whilst "Coal Chamber couldn't keep it up for a whole album", criticizing Fafara's lyrics and its "unimaginative two-note guitar riffs", it was "still an interesting listen, especially in relation to what they did differently from their peers." Steve Huey, also of AllMusic felt that the album was not original and lacked consistency and memorable riffs, but would still appeal to fans of alternative metal. Lacey also criticized the track "Amir of the Desert", claiming it presents the band "[trying] their hand at some casual racism [...], complete with a 'comedy' indian accent that even the cast of Mrs. Brown's Boys would wince at."

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! scope="row" | LA Weekly

|The 10 Greatest Nu-Metal Albums

|2016

| style="text-align:center;" | 9

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! scope="row" | Loudwire

| The 50 Best Nu-Metal Albums of All Time

|2020

| style="text-align:center;" | 35

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! rowspan="2" scope="row" | Metal Hammer

|Top 20 best metal albums of 1997

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|The 50 best nu metal albums of all time

|2022

| style="text-align:center;" |23

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! scope="row" |Revolver

|20 Essential Nu Metal albums

|2021

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Track listing

All lyrics are written by Dez Fafara; all music is written by Miguel Rascón, Rayna Foss and Mike Cox except where noted.

  • On The Complete Roadrunner Collection (1997–2003), "Maricon Puto" and "I" are merged into one track.
  • The song "Pig" ends at 3:20. After 1 minute and 41 seconds of silence (3:20 – 5:01), begins an untitled hidden track consisting of studio outtakes in which Jonathan Davis from Korn talks at the very end.

Special edition

A special edition of the album was released by Roadrunner in 2005. The package includes the original album with six bonus tracks along with a bonus DVD featuring the "Loco" music video and two live concerts. The concerts are live at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles in 1996, which was included in Kerrang!s 100 greatest gigs of all time, and live at the Maritime Hall in San Francisco, 1999.

Bonus tracks on special edition

Personnel

Personnel per liner notes.Coal Chamber

  • Dez Fafara – lead vocals
  • Miguel Rascón – guitars, backing vocals
  • Rayna Foss – bass
  • Mike Cox – drums

Additional personnel

  • Jay Gordon – additional vocals on ("Oddity" & "Maricon Puto")
  • Nathan "Karma" Cox – additional vocals on ("Clock")
  • Eric Levy – additional vocals on ("Sway"), additional percussion on ("Maricon Puto")

Production

  • Jay Gordon – production, mixing
  • Jay Baumgardner – production, mixing
  • Amir Derakh – engineering, mixing
  • Lisa Lewis – assistant engineerArtwork
  • Marina Chavez – photography
  • CIEL – design

2005 Reissue

  • Monte Conner – production
  • Giulio Constanzo – art direction
  • Laurie Es – additional design
  • Kevin Estranda – production, photography
  • Steven Hartong – assistant production
  • Ted Jensen – remastering

Charts

Album

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!Chart (1997–99)

!Peak<br/>position

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! scope="row" |Scottish Albums (OCC)

| align="center" | 76

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! scope="row" | UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC)

| rowspan="1" |"Loco"

| align="center" | 80

|-

|}

Certifications

Release history

{| class="wikitable"

|+Release history for Coal Chamber

!Region

!Label

!Format

!Date

!Catalog #

!Ref.

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|United States

| rowspan="3" |Roadrunner

| rowspan="2" |

|February 11, 1997

| rowspan="2" |RR-9913-2

|

|}

References

Notes