Amen (American band)

Amen is an American rock act that was formed in 1994 in Los Angeles, California. The band was founded by front man and singer Casey Chaos. Amen has released 4 studio albums, one live album, and has released the songs “Coma America”, "The Price of Reality", and "California's Bleeding". The band would see a continuously changing line-up, with Casey Chaos remaining the sole original member. In 2007, Amen went on hiatus and returned in 2014 with an appearance at that year's Knotfest. The band currently has an album due in late 2015.

History

Formation and Debut (1994)

Amen was formed in 1994 in Los Angeles, California, after Amen frontman and singer Casey Chaos's last band, Disorderly Conduct, disbanded. The name 'Amen' is a reference to the title of Disorderly Conduct's 1986 album of the same name.^[3] The bands first album, Slave, was written and performed almost entirely by Casey Chaos himself, with Greg Barrybauer performing guitars and keyboards on a few tracks. 'Slave' was recorded at Sandbox & Marquee West and mixed at Convent Studio in Los Angeles, CA, and was limited to a run of only 2000 copies.

As a result, this would lead to lead singer Casey Chaos being introduced to producer Ross Robinson, and the two collaborated and soon secured a deal with Roadrunner Records.

Amen and the Major Label Debut (1994–1999)

After being signed to Roadrunner Records and working with producer Ross Robinson, Casey Chaos went on to write the songs for Amen's major-label debut, the self-titled album Amen. For the album, expanded to include one-time Ugly Kid Joe drummer Shannon Larkin, bassist John Fahnestock, a.k.a. Tumor, and guitarists Paul Fig and Sonny Mayo. On September 21, 1999, 'Amen' marked the bands major label debut.

The EP, “Coma America”, was released in the United Kingdom the same year and in December 1999, Kerrang magazine named it its Single of the Week, called it “without a doubt the, Album of the Decade."

We Have Come for Your Parents (2000–2003)

By 2000, Amen was signed to Virgin Records to record their third album. Retaining the same line-up as the previous album, in May 2000 the band would record their follow-up album at Sound City in Los Angeles, California. We Have Come for Your Parents was released on October 31, 2000. The name was a reference to The Dead Boys album, 'We Have Come for Your Children'.

The album would become a quick success in the UK, landing them at Number 77 on the UK Charts in November 2000.^[4] Two singles would become hits for Amen in the UK. “Too Hard to Be Free” went to Number 72, and “The Waiting 18” would reach Number 61.^[5]

The song, “The Price of Reality”, was released as a single before the albums release and had a promotional video created for it that featured the same iconic styling and art direction as the album cover and artwork used by Amen during this time. In 2002, it was included on the Streetwise DVD's at FYE and was named Metal Hammer magazine's Video of the Year.

The success of the album would spawn years of touring in support of the album, including a 2002 re-release of the album in Australia for Big Day Out, before which Paul Fig left the band and Rich Jones (musician) joined on guitar.^[6]

By 2002, the 'We Have Come for your Parents' was voted the 2nd best album of the year by Rocksound magazine and 4th best album of the year by Kerrang.^[7]

In 2003, the band was no longer on Virgin Records. During this time, Amen released Join, or Die, a collection of b-sides and rare songs recorded by the band. The album was released through Casey Chaos's new label, Refuse Music, and was initially limited to only 2000 copies, the first 1000 signed in Casey's own blood. The album was sold by Amen during their 2003 tour in the United Kingdom. During this time, guitarist Sonny Mayo and bassist John Fahnestock (Tumor), would leave the band.

Death Before Musick and Gun of a Preacher Man (2003–2007)

In 2003, Casey Chaos worked with Daron Malakian of System of a Down on a demo tape for his project, Scars on Broadway. When Malakian started his own record label EatUrMusic, an imprint of Columbia Records, Amen would become the first band he signed and would also go on to produce their next album. The band would add bassist Scott Sorry, and guitarist Matt Montgomery (Piggy D.) and drummer Luke Johnson (musician) who would in turn record the bands 4th album, Death Before Musick, which was released April 13, 2004.

The lead single, “California's Bleeding”, would become Amen's highest-ranking track, reaching Number 52 on the U.K. Charts and staying there for 2 weeks during April 2004.^[8] A promotional video was made featuring the band slowly getting more and more bloodied, with a second version of the video showing less blood.

During this time, Rich Jones (musician) left the band, and Acey Slade joined.

Later in 2004, a February 1, 2003 show that was recorded Manchester Academy was released by Amen for their first live video, “Caught in the Act”, on DVD. On August 2, 2005, the same show would be released on CD under the title Gun of a Preacher Man by Snapper Records.

In 2005, Casey Chaos released Pisstory: A Catalogue Of Accidents, A Lifetime Of Mistakes through his label, Refuse Music, which included a number of Amen songs that were previously unreleased. Also in this year, the band toured the UK, with a line-up containing Jinxx, Joe Letz, John King and Nate Manor.

In 2007, Amen appeared on Season 2, Episode 14 of The Henry Rollins Show where they performed their first single, “Coma America" (renamed “Coma Amerikkka”) for this performance) in front of an Iraqi flag. The line-up at this point welcomed back John Fahnestock (Tumor), Duke Decter (from Casey's first band; Disorderly Conduct) and new member Chris Alaniz, while still containing John King. Soon after the performance, the band toured the UK. This was to be their most recent tour.

That same year, Casey Chaos was voted Number 53 among the “All-Time Top 100 Underground Stars” in a 2007 issue of Hit Parader.^[9]

Return and New Album (2014-Present)

After being inactive for several years, Amen announced on February 26, 2014, that they would be playing the UK event Alt-Fest on August 16, 2014.^[10] The Alt-Fest Festival was canceled, however the band would reunite on October 25, 2014 at Knotfest where they debuted a new song where they were accompanied by Stone Sour drummer Roy Mayorga.^[11] The song was one of several new songs recorded by Ross Robinson with Amen and Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo for an upcoming 4th Amen album release.^[12][13]

In an August 2014 interview with UK’s Rock-A-Rolla magazine, Lombardo stated that he didn’t join Amen as a full-time member: “Actually, that is not all true, I simply helped the singer of Amen with his new album. He's a good friend.” ^[14]

As of May 2015, Amen is currently nearing completion of their next studio album, due later in 2015.

Band members

Current members

• Casey Chaos − vocals (1994-2009, 2014–present)
• John Fahnestock - bass guitar (1999-2003, 2007-2009, 2014-present)
• Duke Decter - guitar (2004-2009, 2014–present)
• John King - guitar (2005-2009, 2014–present)

Former members

• Greg Barrybauer - guitar (1995)
• Shannon Larkin - drums (1998-2002, 2004)
• Sonny Mayo - guitar (1998-2002)
• Paul Fig - guitar (1999-2001)
• Rich Jones - guitar (2001-2004)
• Piggy D. - guitar, bass guitar (2003-2004)
• Joe Letz - drums (2005)
• Acey Slade - guitar (2004)
• Scott Sorry - bass guitar (2003-2004)
• Blake Plonsky - drums (2003)
• Luke Johnson - drums (2003-2005)
• Zach Hill - drums (2003)
• Jinxx - guitar (2005)
• Chris Alaniz - drums (2007)
• Nate Manor - bass (2005)

Live members

• Roy Mayorga - drums (2014–present)

Session members

• Dave Lombardo - drums (2014)

Discography

Albums

• Slave (1994, Drag-u-la Records)
• Amen (1999, Roadrunner Records)
• We Have Come For Your Parents (2000, Virgin Records)
• Death Before Musick (2004, Sony BMG)

Singles

• Coma America (2000, Roadrunner Records)
• Waiting 18 (2001, EMI Music Distribution)
• Too Hard to Be Free (2001, Virign)
• California's Bleeding (2004, Columbia)

Compilations

• Join, Or Die (2003, Refuse Music)
• Pisstory, A Catalogue of Accidents/A Lifetime of Mistakes (2005, Refuse Music)

Live albums

• Gun of a Preacher Man (2005, Secret Records Ltd)

DVDs

• Caught In The Act (2004, Secret Records Ltd)

References

External links

• Casey Chaos' Official Website
• Casey Chaos Boxset (Pisstory: A Catalogue of Accidents/A Lifetime Of Mistakes)
• AMEN Official Facebook