REVIEW: Chamber - this is goodbye...
- Jasmine Longhurst
- Mar 23
- 3 min read
The Nashville five-piece CHAMBER are back with a vengeance. Releasing their debut full length Cost Of Sacrifice in 2020 and following up with 2023’s A Love To Kill For, it comes time for their third full length to obliterate the ear drums of any and all in their way. Enter this is goodbye…, a pummelling piece of metallic hardcore mosh music that dares all comers to step to the plate and make a mess of the nearest jaw.
Forged in the fire of the daily grind under the permanent uncertainty and lack of comfort that our modern life provides, the LP holds nothing back in its discussion of the toll of the rat race - as vocalist/guitarist Gabe Manuel alluded to discussing the album; “Any band that's trying to get out of just playing local shows and actually tour has to be involved in what I refer to as the rat race of competing for people's attention – online and trying to play shows. And that took a toll on me personally. I love spending time with my friends in CHAMBER. We love each other very much, but the toll of being on tour, sleeping in the van every night – and wondering if you've made the right choice by making what you're doing your primary creative focus – can weigh heavy. If there’s a theme to the record, it's us reckoning with that and deciding that we are doing the right thing, and that it is worth the bullshit that you go through being in a band.”
Opening the entire album is a spoken word quote – “Forever is too much for a soul to endure.” Setting the nihilistic tone quickly on opener arms for eternity, whilst belying the furious energy of the song to come, is a bold statement and one that pays off in droves. Backing up that message time and time again, from the ceaseless sense of finality and crushing weight of everything to the incredibly poignant and deeply heartbreaking addition of a funeral recording to finish the song angel, they pull no punches. Whilst discussing the album, Manuel explains the quote in angel further - “That recording is actually from the funeral of my friend who passed away, and who the song is about. I've wanted to use that clip for years and that just seemed like the perfect opportunity.”
Other such songs provide a different sense of the band, where violins shows off the impact that math-core has had on the band and their evolving sound, whilst pale blue (why) allows the more expansive and dour end of their sonic palette to take the fore and crush the light at the end of the tunnel into nothing but a speck of dim, desaturated yellow you might find emanating from an old flickering lamp on the streets of the rough part of town that you try and avoid at all costs.
Each moment spent listening to the album feels like an exercise in gazing the futility of life in the eye and not blinking first. The raw, abrasive emotion found across the record - particularly notable on resurrect, found nearing the end with a feature from Vincent Bennett of THE ACACIA STRAIN - is deeply impassioned and honest, whilst the jagged guitars and unpredictable rhythm section serve to disorient and confuse the senses until you aren’t sure which way is up and what time it is, you’re just sure that everything sucks except for CHAMBER.
Finale in revolving doors is not only noteworthy as the last track here, but also as the pseudo-title track for this is goodbye… as the record’s title is found within the lyrics on the last song. A suitably fitting way to come across such words, if ever there was one. It contains the most melody found on the album - which still isn’t much - and embodies the cathartic feeling of giving up under the weight of the world in a most melancholic manner that serves to simply further the band’s already potent dose of sadness and numbing.
In short, this is goodbye… is a chunk of fantastic metallic hardcore that will be as good for inciting crowd killing as it will be for sucking every ounce of your happiness out and replacing it with an ominous sense of dread. Whilst not a listen for the faint of heart or mind, CHAMBER have set themselves up to be one of the most talked about and celebrated acts of the year within the heavy underground. The album is a phenomenal piece of anguished music that rips from beginning to end, never once letting up or easing off, and shall rightly be lauded for years to come.
Score: 10/10
this is goodbye… will be released on March 27th 2026 via Pure Noise Records.
Words: Jasmine Longhurst
Photos: Chamber
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