If ever proof were needed that hard times inspire equally hard art, we need look no further that Nashville metalcore bruisers Chamber. Since their formation in 2017, this quintet have been providing a caustic soundtrack to a world that’s perched precariously on the precipice of destruction, releasing a succession of albums and EP’s that have detonated like nuclear warheads. Album number three, this is goodbye…, is no exception and finds Chamber channelling all the negative energy that’s flying around and condensing it into a red hot laser beam.

Rather than being a form of farewell, this is goodbye… feels more like a new beginning; established fans needn’t worry, Chamber aren’t reinventing the wheel, yet there’s a sense that the band are moving into more extreme territory (as are our times) and that becomes immediately apparent on opening salvo ‘arms of eternity’. Aside from a brief, unsettling introduction, there’s no time to waste and Chamber arrive like a bullet that suddenly appears between your eyebrows. You don’t really see it until it connects…and it is all the more powerful for it. A hammer crashing skull, the effects are suitably bombastic and leave the listener dazed and confused (but in the best possible way, of course). It finds the band scrawling their sound on every surface, and in the most violent and depraved way. Whilst the album’s title and song titles are presented in lower case, their sound is the polar opposite and fills every cubic inch of space, it refuses to have its presence denied and, love it or loathe it, demands that you pay attention.

As you’d expect from a band who’ve been in the game for almost a decade, Chamber know a thing or two about musical dynamics and the whole album is like some strange hall of mirrors with sound being reflected and fractured in every direction. The result can sometimes be dizzying and disorientating with the listener constantly being repositioned as the band veer off on unexpected tangents and flip rhythms at a moment’s notice. It means that one listen (perhaps one lifetime) is not really enough to take in all the facets of this album, but when the songs are as good as ‘parting gift’, repeat spins are no hardship. If you are not familiar with Chamber and need a reference point then imagine Glassjaw’s Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence colliding with Miles Davis’ Live-Evil and performed by Iowa-era Slipknot, and you’d have something approaching the interwoven, visceral attack of this is goodbye… .

Older fans will enjoy hearing Chamber expand their sonic palette even further, but for those new to the group, this is goodbye… is perfect for making their acquaintance.

• this is goodbye… is released via Pure Noise Records on 27th March 2026.

• Official Website

Track List:

1. arms of eternity

2. scarlet ink

3. violins

4. vanity

5. surveillance

6. parting gift

7. angel

8. pale blue (why)

9. without a trace

10. resurrect (featuring Vince Bennett)

11. death without departure

12. in revolving doors