Nearly a dozen years and five albums in, guitarist Rob Arnold says Cleveland headbangers Chimaira are starting to feel confident that they’re making a lasting impression on the hard rock scene.

“Overall I feel it’s doing really well,” says Arnold, 29, who co-founded the group in 1998. “I feel like the songs are being appreciated and taken in and people are singing along more and more. We realize we’re the type of band that takes awhile for things to catch on, so we’re patient.

“But we feel like were making fans each tour. We feel like at least 50 percent of the crowd is seeing us for the first time each night, which is cool. And it’s good to have the other 50 percent coming back. So we’re just trucking along, making the best of each day.”

Chimaira’s latest album, “The Infection,” had the group’s best debut yet, bowing at No. 30 on the Billboard 200 chart and launching the single “Secrets of the Dead.” The group also has another track, “On Broken Glass,” on the Guitar Hero video game, while “Warpath” is part of the “Saw VI” soundtrack.

“To be recognized as one of the two big metal bands from Cleveland now — us and Mushroomhead — is pretty cool,” Arnold says. “Jim Rome from (the syndicated radio show) ‘Rome is Burning’ was in Cleveland one day, and we heard through the grapevine he was playing Chimaira music to signify where he was, so that was cool as well. It’s just another mark that people know who we are.”



Chimaira performs with Trivium, White Chapel and Dirge Within at 6:30 p.m. Friday (Nov. 13) at Clutch Cargo’s, 65 E. Huron St., Pontiac. Tickets are $20. Call (248) 333-2362 or visit www.clutchcargos.com.