CHIMAIRA Frontman: 'Where's The Next SLIPKNOT Or METALLICA?'

Vocalist Mark Hunter of Cleveland, Ohio metallers CHIMAIRA tells AOL's Noisecreep that while he is grateful for that his band's latest album, "The Infection", debuted in Billboard's top 30 and was the third most-spun record of the year at metal radio (according to music industry trade magazine FMQB),the music industry is "tanking," with fewer people legally buying albums. "To be number 30 on the Billboard charts five or six years ago would have been a dream come true, and five or six years ago, the sales number we had would have been triple that," he says. "We've done a lot, but everybody keeps going down and going down, and it's just not as important anymore. Nobody in the metal scene is doing numbers that are mind-blowing."

Hunter continues, "There's a few artists selling ridiculous amounts, but other than that, no one's selling records. Even NICKELBACK, as popular as they are, are nowhere near doing the sales they were on their album before this. As cliché a term as 'rock is dead' is, I would say yeah, it is."

Regarding the state of the current metal scene, Hunter tells Noisecreep, "Our tier of bands, our wave, [KILLSWITCH ENGAGE], LAMB OF GOD, we were the last legitimate new style of music to come out of metal. There hasn't been anything new. Where's the next SLIPKNOT or METALLICA or the next band that takes over and changes what heavy metal is all about and gets everybody interested in it again?"

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CHIMAIRA is in the middle of a tour of Australia and New Zealand. Support on the trek is coming from DOUBLE DRAGON. This is CHIMAIRA's first headlining Australian tour, having previously played the country as a support act for IN FLAMES, BIOHAZARD and KORN.

CHIMAIRA's latest album, "The Infection", sold 15,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 30 on The Billboard 200 chart.