Amen are quickly achieving a reputation for wild behaviour, due in the main to their blood-spilling, Darby Crash-in-big-shorts frontman Casey Chaos.
Venues are smashed up on a regular basis by the Hollywood five-piece now tipped for big things in the world of sports metal. They’ve even been proclaimed as “the punkest, heaviest thing out of America since The [a]MC5[/a]” by, er, Rat Scabies of The Damned. But while the venerable Mr Scabies‘ estimations may be slightly out of touch, Amen‘s furious, nihilistic debut is certainly a cut above the competition.
Kicking off with nasty, squealing feedback, Chaos then screams, rants and raves his way through his hate list, his depression and the general un-tickety-boo vibes of living in Hollywood. The cops, the President, the bomb, the street trash and the liars all come in for an ear-bashing, but mercifully Chaos steers clear of any cod-political posturing, preferring instead to sink lower, dig deeper and wallow in the filth. Punk rock indeed.
Amen‘s debut is made up of 14 storming three-minute punk-metal anthems full of discordant guitar, furious drumming and screaming. A great adolescent aggression record for the kids by the slightly older kids.
If anything’s going to connect with the Limp Bizkit crowd and make them see the error of their ways, Amen‘s ferocious appetite for destruction looks to be the best bet.