Biography
According to the band's official biography Amen was conceived in LA in 1994 by Casey Chaos as a vision of harsh sonic reality, with piercing self-introspection and disturbing social insight. Finding musicians capable of understanding and delivering this concept took patience and dedication.
The original lineup was Paul Fig, Sonny Mayo, Tumor and Shannon Larkin. Since then Casey's search for bandmates who share his attitude and beliefs has seen around 100 musicians pass through Amen's ranks.
The line-up for this February 2003 London Astoria performance was Casey on vocals, Matt Montgomery guitar, Canadian Rich Jones (ex-Black Halos) guitar, Scott S. Sorry bass, with Blake Plonsky on drums. Since then Luke Johnson has joined replacing Blake.The timing of this Astoria gig - couldn't have been more neat and appropriate: as the band sound checked during the afternoon, anti-Iraq War demonstrators in their thousands marched past the venue parading Bush and Blair effigies. Of course, Casey's disdain for George Bush's America (the sleeping giant hasn't woken up) is well-known if not central to Amen's radical manifesto.
Musical heroes for Casey include Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, MC5 and Black Flag. As important, though, is how unimpressed the very young Casey was with the superstar ethic of bands such as Led Zeppelin, as well as being scornful of the corporate ethic of major record labels.
So, Amen's hook-up with Virgin for their 1999 self-titled debut album was bound not to last, owing to Casey's uncompromising anti-commercial approach to his music (If you're gonna play with the machine then you're gonna get f---ed by the machine).
Amen found themselves without a record label after their acclaimed second album We Have Come For Your Parents got released in 2000. Casey Chaos, the stage-diving performer, is fearlessly physical a trait which perhaps first became obvious when he took up the skateboard, aged 10.
In fact, it was thanks to his wild skateboarding moves that friends nicknamed him Chaos. What's more, it was this pastime that first prompted him to create his own music: aged 15, the song No Morals' his first-ever stab at songwriting was written after breaking both arms in a skateboarding accident. Accidents are also central to Amen's manifesto. Since then, songwriting has become second-nature to Casey he had 53 songs demoed from which to choose the final tracks for Amen's current album Death Before Musick. This is on the eatURmusic label set up by System Of A Down guitarist Daron Malakian.
Many of these songs were inspired by desperately hard times endured by Casey over the past couple of years. Casey's early childhood was spent in New York but then his family relocated to Melbourne, Florida a part of America he describes as the redneck swamp.
Aged 14, his first band was called Disorderly Conduct who released an album called Amen in 1986. He also played bass for Christian Death. Amen's unique brand of punk and metal has been described as the sound of the 20th century by Kerrang magazine, and Casey himself is regarded by metal fans as an outlaw hero. Heroism and anti-establishment revolt runs in the family: in World War II his Polish father was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. This did not stop the fearless 15-year-old then leading a small group of radicals to freedom. Like father, like son. Amen.
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