Amen
Amen
Release Date - September 21, 1999
Roadrunner Records
Lineup:
Sonny Mayo – guitars
Paul Fig – guitars
John Tumor – bass
Shannon Larkin - drums
The fury of the opening track, "Coma America" sets the
tone all too well for this album. A pissed off Casey Chaos wrestles with his
inner demons to put out one of the most angry albums ever released. After
"Coma America", songs like "Down Human" and "No Cure
for the Pure" continue the blistering assault of the album. The album lets
off slightly for the somewhat melodic tune "Private", which instead
of being a sign of weakness on the album, just shows a little bit of
versatility in the band, but still doesn't hold back on all of the anger of the
other tracks of the album. While there are some poor tracks on the album, the
good ones are nothing to look past, and there's enough of them to keep you
interested until the poor song is over.
The sound quality on this album is about as raw as a studio album
can get in this day and age. A slight fuzz over everything, not enough to make
a huge difference, even light enough that by about a minute into the album
you're able to forget that it's even there. By that time you're enthralled in
the fury and aggressive nature of the first few tracks. The sound quality is
not in any way bad, it's very easy to make the music out still, but it's raw in
a sense that you don't see too often anymore.
Overall, with the fury and aggressive nature of the album, it's
something that you shouldn't stray away from when you're looking to do some
damage to someone or something. There are some killer tracks to look forward to
every time you put it in, but there are also a few weaker tracks that you'll
have to skip past or just sit through. Out of 100, this album gets a 78.
Track listing
1.
Coma America
2.
Down Human
3.
Drive
4.
No Cure for the Pure
5.
When a Man Dies a Woman
6.
Unclean
7.
I Don’t Sleep
8.
TV Womb
9.
Private
10. Everything is Untrue
11. The Last Time
12. Fevered
13. Broken Design
14. Resignation/Naked and Violent
Coma America (import single)
Released - November 22, 1999
Roadrunner Records
Lineup:
Casey Chaos – vocals
Sonny Mayo – guitars
Paul Fig – guitars
John Tumor – bass
Shannon Larkin - drums
This is basically a short collection of five songs, a single for
the song "Coma America" off of their first album. The next four songs
were all unreleased before the single and still unreleased in the states. The
unreleased songs start off with the blistering "Whores of Hollywood",
which takes you through another aggressive journey through the twisted mind of
Casey Chaos. "Lovers are Killers" is the next song, and while it's
not among the best of their stuff, it's still something for most bands to be
proud of. Another aggressive song with maybe a little bit of a silly theme to
it, but in extreme punk rock, you'll get a lot of that. "Life Crime"
is another solid song, nothing amazing, but in the end, with "Black
God" you get what you started off with, the aggression and anger of Casey
in full force with a fairly catchy song.
The sound quality on this is very similar to the sound quality on
their self titled album, but slightly better. Still pretty raw, but a little
more crisp. A good solid sound. Still has some of that fuzz to it, but overall
is pretty easy to make out.
Overall, it's not a full length album, so the score song for song
is a little lower than what it is for full length albums, but song for song,
it's a very solid effort, and with the quality not being anything horrible,
it's something worth checking out. Out of 100, this gets a 73.
Track listing
1.
Coma America
2.
Whores of Hollywood
3.
Lovers are Killers
4.
Life Crime
5.
Black God
We Have Come
For Your Parents
Release Date - October 31, 2000
Virgin Records
Lineup:
Casey Chaos – vocals
Sonny Mayo – guitars
Paul Fig – guitars
John Tumor – bass
Shannon Larkin - drums
Despite the silly name, and some silly song titles, this album
really pulls quite a punch, and does that while adding an awful lot of melody
in comparison to their earlier work. From the get go, with "CK
Killer" the pace is relentless, from there, the album blisters through
fourteen tracks without letting up much at all during any point in the album.
Even all of the weaker tracks have their points of pure intensity. If Casey was
pissed off with their first album, he probably killed a few people in the
making of this album. Never have I heard that kind of fury coming from anyone's
lungs, and I've pissed off quite a few people myself in my lifetime. Some of
the better tracks outside of "CK Killer" include
"Justified", "Price of Reality", "Mayday",
"Dead on the Bible", "Piss Virus", and "Waiting".
These are all exceptionally good tracks, some more melodic than others, but
overall, the sound on this album is much more melodic than anything they ever
did before, but it doesn't risk any of the aggression of their previous
releases, if anything, it's more aggressive than their past releases.
The sound quality of this album is about as polished as Amen can
get without losing that trademark sound to them. While it's still not polished
to the standards of most, it's a fairly clean sound. Not really far enough
either way to really make any difference on the rating though.
Overall, a solid sound and some killer tracks with some great
melodies to them. All this while being another Amen album on the most pissed
off albums of all time list. This album does it all. Out of 100, this gets an
88.
Track listing
1.
CK Killer
2.
Refuse Amen
3.
Justified
4.
Price of Reality
5.
Mayday
6.
Under the Rope
7.
Dead on the Bible
8.
Too Hard to be Free
9.
Ungrateful Dead
10. Piss Virus
11. Waiting
12. Take My Head
13. In My Suit
14. Here’s the Poison
Sony Music
Lineup:
Casey Chaos – vocals
Rich Jones – guitars
Matt Montgomery – guitars
Scott S. Sorry – bass
Luke Johnson – drums
After a more than lengthy break filled with all sorts of record
label problems and many other blocks in the road, Casey Chaos is pissed off. If
you thought he was pissed off on their self titled debut, you were thrown a
curve ball when he was even more pissed of with their follow-up “We’ve Come for
Your Parents”, and if you thought he was pissed off there, you’re really in for
something with this album. Given that I don’t care for his new hair style, he
still manages to gives that signature Casey Chaos scream with more conviction
than he ever has before. He bellows his ass off on fifteen songs, all filled
with extreme anger and insanity. Casey’s had a lot to be pissed off about since
the band’s last release, and he makes sure on this album that everyone knows
about that, because this is non-stop pissed off insanity, there’s just no other
way to explain it. To pick out a single track on this album, or even several
single tracks off of this album would be rather silly. The songs seem to follow
the same basic formula as all the others on this album, and pretty much the
same formula as most of the band’s previous songs, but there’s that little
extra twist each song has, rather it be in the lyrics, bridges, or in the basic
melody of the song, every song has it, it’s something the band’s been doing for
a while, and it’s those surprises that make Amen such a great band to listen
to. While you know generally what you’re going to get, you have no way of
guessing exactly what you’re gonna get, because there’s always a little
something in there. This album has it all though. Those furious screams in
between verses, great melodies, and ferocious lyrics. Casey Chaos proves once
again that Amen is one of the very few punk bands that really matter anymore.
They show all the pop punk bands how they should’ve been doing it the entire
time.
The sound quality on this album is pretty clean. It’s a little
more raw than their previous release, but not enough that it is detectable to
the untrained ear. It still allows Amen to get their point across and their
emotion as well, and that is all I really care about.
This album is a huge fuck off to all of the pop punk bands that
have given punk music an even worse reputation than the one it previously had.
Amen, as I’ve already said, have proven once again with this release that they
are one of the only punk bands around that still matter. With very real lyrics,
great melodies, and just complete ferocious attitude, Amen show what punk should
really be all about. What it’s all about is an 89 out of 100.
Track listing
1.
Liberation For...
2.
Hello (One Chord Lovers)
3.
California’s Bleeding
4.
The Abolishment of Luxury
5.
Money Infection
6.
Westwood Fallout
7.
Oblivion Stereo
8.
Please Kill Me
9.
EXTERMINATE!
10. We Got the Bait
11. Neutron Liars
12. Sorry, Not Sorry
13. Bring Me the Heads
14. Fuck In LA
15. The Summer Of Guns
