Chimaira broke up in 2014, reunited once in 2017 for a show, and then fell back into being non-existent. Though that 2017 show wasn't the last we've heard from the band. According to guitarist Rob Arnold in an interview Pierre Gutiérrez, Chimaira was planning another reunion show for this year and kicking around the possibility of doing some new music.
"We had the next 'Chimaira Christmas' show, which was gonna be Christmas of 2020… [It] had been booked, but it hadn't been announced yet," said Arnold. "We weren't gonna announce it until probably mid-summer… We had already even started talking about setlists and stuff like that.
"And then along with that came the talks of ‘hey, why don't we start writing some music and just start putting some riffs together and sending them back and forth?' and that didn't really get out of any infancy stage. There aren't any songs or anything yet that are in the archives or anything like that.
"That never really lifted off. Because right at that same moment is when COVID hit. And obviously everybody had to make huge adjustments right then. And just everything was put on hold. A few weeks later the show was cancelled…"
The new material would be the band's first since their 2013 record Crown of Phantoms. As for the band's now-future plans, Arnold said "All I can say is maybe we'll try for next year."
Chimaira's 2017 reunion show consisted mostly of the lineup that played on the band's 2001 album Pass Out of Existence. The only differences were that guitarist Jason Hager and drummer Andols Herrick (who's been battling an illness for a while) were replaced by guitarist Matt DeVries and drummer Austin D'Amond.
