Amen is: Tumor (John) - Bass, S. Mayo - Guitar, Casey Chaos - Vocals, Paul Fig - Guitar, Larkin - Drums
As far as punk rock goes, AMEN might just be today's closest thing. Their music might not be glossy, technically polished or complex, but it is an authentic expression of a lifestyle, with poetry and motion inspired by a forward looking present rather than a rapidly fading past. Amen's music is exciting, and the bands intense commitment to their music is a refreshing change from hearing bands who so often, have it all picture perfect, and have forgotten the fundamental quality needed to make anything creative transcend the ordinary. The ones who have lost "The element of risk."
Casey takes risks head on. He gets into bed with addictions and diseases when he makes music. He's broken ribs and shed blood in the vocal booth. Amen's live shows have incited riots. On stage, Casey exists in a harsh domain fueled by rage; it takes over his body as if he's in a trance. Amen's sonic violence has garnered devoted fans worldwide.
Where hardcore, metal, and punk have taken on a commercial tone and sold their souls over the past few years, Amen is an exorcism in the form of a car crash. Amen's sophomore effort We Have Come For Your Parents, released on Ross Robinson's I AM Recordings through Virgin Records, is an important album because it dares to take an uncensored ax to society. It's a verbal and musical attack on the American Dream.
The album was recorded at Sound City Studios located on the bleak outskirts of Los Angeles. Nothing could prepare Amen, the studio or even Ross Robinson for the reality which became We Have Come For Your Parents.
The 14-track album takes music to a new level. Amen's lyrics have a prose-like overtone that eventually ends in the hostility that spawned them. "CK Killer" is a homage to pop fashion's ability to slaughter individuality. "Piss Virus" reflects how the computer age has induced self-hatred and divided the spirits of millions of Americans. On "Justify," which exposes how greed and false ideologies have made prisoners of themselves, Casey screams "Walk away, it's just a flaming halo/In this blame invention/Get up and set fire to your church."
"America is the most poverty stricken country on the planet-it's a poverty of the soul and spawned Casey Chaos," says Robinson who also produced Amen's self-titled debut album released on I AM/Roadrunner in 1999. The album was hailed by critics as a welcome wake up call and even prompted former Sex Pistol Steve Jones to confess, "Amen's more pissed off than we ever were." Of We Have Come For Your Parents Robinson adds, "This is the most violent record ever to be released by a major label. There is no record on the planet ever made that hits the same level of intensity."
In a culture that blames music for the violence committed by gun-toting high-schoolers, Casey asks, "Why don't kids kill more often? America is a violent society that is at war with what it is told to be and what it is. Music does not define society, society defines music. It's the outlet, a reflection. The establishment is just looking for someone to blame for the violence and uses music as the scapegoat instead of taking a look at what they themselves have created."
"The American dream has instilled in our culture a raw thirst for fame and money as defined by Brittney Spears and the Calvin Kleins of the world, whom I consider to be the real murderers at large," explains Casey. "It is an ideology without substance, spoon fed to the working class to keep them down. We are told to pray to false icons, we are told to eat, breath, walk, look a certain way - and its all lies. It's not who we really are. It's not who I am. That's what punk rock is all about - a musical form to express outrage at the bourgeois pigs' attempt to define society by hiding the truth."
Art in its truest form is meant to remind people of who they are, and offer a mirror into the realms of their souls that they are afraid to look at. Casey ingests his disease because he wants to be free of it, the same disease that exists in all people. Art is the vaccine, not only for the creator, but for the audience as well. In a world where most people are afraid to look in the mirror - Amen tears off the mask
