Dark Days is the third studio album by the American nu metal band Coal Chamber. It was released on May 7, 2002.
In 2019, Joe Smith-Engelhardt of Alternative Press included the song "Fiend" in his list of "Top 10 nü-metal staples that still hold up today".
Background and production
Coal Chamber began recording Dark Days with producer Ross Hogarth at Rumbo Recorders on May 29, 2001. The band finished recording bass and drum tracks by mid-June 2001, after which guitars and vocals were recorded. The album was mostly completed on September 18, 2001, with Dez Fafara going into the studio to re-record his vocals on September 21, 2001. Bassist Rayna Foss-Rose left the band after this album was recorded; she was replaced by Nadja Peulen, who had already previously replaced her for Coal Chamber's tours in 1999 during Rayna's pregnancy. This was the last studio album from Coal Chamber before they disbanded due to personal differences. It was accompanied by a video clip directed by photographer Paul Brown. The clip found airplay on Uranium, which also featured an interview with the band and the song "Glow" was also most notably featured on the soundtrack of The Scorpion King. It is one of the band's most well known songs and is thought to be about how the band and the nu metal genre were getting heavily criticized at the time.
The album debuted and peaked at number 34 on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling more than 31,000 copies in its first week.
On their last show, guitarist Meegs Rascón accidentally hit vocalist Dez Fafara on the head with his guitar, with Dez walking off stage only to reappear claiming that this was to be Coal Chamber's last show. Dez then released Giving the Devil His Due which was a collection of unreleased tracks, remixes, and demos by Coal Chamber. Afterward, he went on to start the band DevilDriver.
The song "Something Told Me" was featured on the Resident Evil end credits as the second song.
Track listing
<small>All songs written by Mike Cox/B. Dez Fafara/Rayna Foss/Miguel Rascón except where noted.</small>
Credits
- Dez Fafara – lead vocals
- Miquel Rascon – guitars, backing vocals
- Rayna Foss-Rose – bass
- Mike Cox – drums
Production
- Ross Hogarth – production, engineering, mixing, mastering
- Jeremy Blair – assistant engineering
Charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
!scope="col"|Chart (2002)
!scope="col"|Peak<br />position
|-
!scope="row"| Australian Albums (ARIA Charts)
| 61
|-
|-
!scope="row"|German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)
| 43
|-
!scope="row"|UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC)
| 4
|-
!scope="row"| US Billboard 200
| 34
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
|+"Fiend"
!Chart (2002)
!Peak<br />position
|-
|align="left"|US Active Rock Top 50 (Radio & Records)
|align="center"|49
|-
|}