Yesterday's announcement of the Sick New World festival featured a jam packed lineup, and right there in the midst of all the names on the tour poster was Coal Chamber, essentially confirming a 2023 reunion for the Dez Fafara-led rockers who enjoyed late '90s and early 2000s success at the height of the nu-metal era. In the aftermath of the festival reveal, each of Coal Chambers members visited social media to individually comment on their upcoming reunion.
Fafara, who has primarily spent his time with Devildriver in recent years, offered a succinct comment on the reunion, stating via Twitter, "#coalchamber is back #thatisall." But his fellow bandmates were a bit more forthcoming commenting on the reunion.
Bassist Nadja Peulen added via her Facebook account, "Excited to share the stage with my brothers again! COAL CHAMBER live in Las Vegas 2023 @sicknewworld festival. Register now for Presale that starts Friday November 11th 10am PT."
Guitarist Meegs Rascon commented, "My brothers and sister. Back together, w all the love in the world. Cant wait to play for all the fans who have been there for us and loyal. We love u all!," with the #coalchamber #sicknewworld hashtags.
Drummer Mike Cox was the most verbose of all the band members, offering up the most significant update since the band's prior reunion and revealing how we got to the band getting back together.
"GOOD LORD what a line up!!! Well this is definitely something I thought I would never post again in my life!!! I am rarely on social media anymore as it is," started the drummer.
He then added, "Quick recap as it will be therapeutic for me !!! After our last tours in 2015 I was coming off stage very depressed and wanting to be home with my young son. I was missing a lot and it started to really get to me. I made the decision, that if we stop again it was my last time ever playing again. After our last show, it was over … and that’s what I did. I completely retired from music and began focusing on my family life and raising our son. With the tremendous support and encouragement from my wife we moved to a new city, bought a new house, and my construction company is booming…. Everything was exactly where we wanted it to be. After YEARS of hard work, therapy, sobriety, 2 elbow surgeries, I found extreme peace with not being a musician anymore."
So what changed? The drummer explained, "Over the years I kept in contact with @dezfafara and I feel like for the first time in 25 years we actually became real friends. Both our families went through A LOT over the past years and we were actually there for each other. We actually listen to each other and that means more than any band at this point in my life. That slowly changed the conversation of starting to play again… and here we are!!!"
Cox says, "I really thought about this decision for a long time with my family and what it meant to jump back in and this was a family decision. Our son is older now and always asks about what I used to do… now I can just show him all the crazy hardcore Coal Chamber fans we have out there!!! It’s an exciting time for us all, the future looks bright! As for @meegsrascon ….. I think I have talked to him almost everyday of my life for the past 25 years….can’t get rid of this fool!!!"
The drummer concludes, "I want to thank everyone who helped me with this decision as it was not an easy one to make. Thank you to @theoraclemgmt for all of the extremely hard work and putting things in black and white and not bullshitting me like the music industry is so famous for. Also thanks to @nadjapeulen for being a part of this whacky journey we have put her through. I love all of you!!!!
Coal Chamber were initially active between 1994 and 2003, releasing their self-titled debut in 1997, then charting with their 1999 sophomore set Chamber Music and completing their initial run with 2002's Dark Days. They released such singles as "Loco" and "Fiend," but enjoyed their biggest radio success with their cover of Peter Gabriel's "Shock the Monkey."
After their initial disbandment, the group got back together in 2011, initially touring before deciding to do a new album. Rivals became the band's fourth studio album in 2015, yielding the song "I.O.U. Nothing." But the band would go on hiatus again in 2016 and Fafara commenting a year later that he felt the band would likely never tour or make music again.
But, with the announcement of the Sick New World festival on Monday (Nov. 7), here we are. The band has yet to say if there will be additional dates, so for now make sure you catch them at the Sick New World festival taking place Saturday, May 13, 2023 at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds.
Sick New World Festival Poster
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