COAL CHAMBER with Special Guests FEAR FACTORY, JASTA, SAINT RIDLEY, MAD LIFE Dez Fafara didn't think about it when he wrote the lyrics to "Rivals," the title track of the new album from the reconstituted Coal Chamber. The murderous song from the premier groove 'n' gouge metal unit is seemingly top-loaded with mixed messages. Consider the name of the album, which harkens back to the band's public disintegration in 2003. Then check out the song's chorus, where vocalist Fafara vanquishes his antagonist off the grid with sentiments like, "I just want to say this to you/you'll never be anything without me," with a vocal prowess that's one part PTSD-stricken sociopath and one part enraged Gila monster. When made aware of this, the singer is quick to dismiss any notion of resentment toward any of his band members. "First of all, that lyric has very little to do with anyone in the band," he begins. "In addition, this is the first Coal Chamber record where I wasn't writing songs about the members. I promise you the person who I am talking about will hear that song and will know it's about him immediately. I'll tell ya, writing this record has saved me thousands in psychotherapy!" The rest of us listening to Rivals will be confronted with a different kind of immediacy, one felt by the sheer bone-powdering force and propulsive bounce Fafara, guitarist Meegs Rascon, bassist Nadja Peulen and drummer Mikey Cox have delivered. Recorded in less than three months and overseen by producer Mark Lewis in late 2014, Rivals doesn't necessarily mark a reinvention of the band as much as it is installs a psychic system upgrade for maximum mayhem. New bands big on ambition (while low on vision) and old-guard rockers who continue to mine the same tired tropes should be very, very afraid: Coal Chamber didn't press the reset button on their career as much as they smashed the thing with a ball peen hammer.