Amen
We Have Come For Your Parents
I Am/Virgin

Is this a joke? Every imaginable "future of punk" has come up in the last two years. This particular submission is as punk as Twisted Sister. These are more white boys who are angry because they don’t know how to cope with suburbia. First, you move to L.A. so you can be disgusted by commercialism, then embrace it under the guise of fighting it. Oh, I know, you’re destroying it from within, like Colonel Hogan. Scream as loud as you want, the message is still "We’re not gonna take it." The title is literal; your parents will think this is horrific, or try to be hip by giving it to their "punk" kids. Remember parents bringing the yunguns to see KISS?

By combining the laughable shock-value of 2Live Crew with the musical sensibilities of Crowbar, Amen have come up with a knockout combination. Well, you’ll be unconscious, anyway. Here’s the formula: drone drone drone, scream scream drone, snore. Occasionally, Chaos slips into an under-the-breath growl, stolen from Reznor by way of Manson. But the music isn’t what’s important here. The self-mutilation, that’s the stuff. Now I know we saw this already with GG Allin, Poison Idea, Mr. P-Orridge, Iggy Pop, blah blah blah, and ad naseum. But this time it’s different. This time, Casey Chaos (brilliant moniker, eh?) even cuts himself in the studio! This press-byte is straight out of the Time-Life "Leather Punk" volume. The man so mean he once shot himself just for snoring too loud. The label claims he’s so desensitized by the world, he can only feel the extreme. And that explains why the screaming isn’t moving. I don’t feel anything either. The guitars on "the most violent major label release ever" are boring, the drums are adequate, the screaming sucks.

These guys couldn’t get arrested for indecency in Dade, that’s how convincing they are. Of course, Florida has hundreds of bands that sound just like this anyway. Save a guitar solo or two, and you have Obituary or Cannibal Corpse. A sample lyric is "AAAAAAaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhhh".

"The Waiting 18" is the highlight, where for a brief moment, the screaming decreases enough to make out an Iggy influenced, trashy speed-glam number. Two-chord punk, leading into a Sisters Of Mercy chorus of chanting. The runner up is a riff stolen from Shriekback in "Dead On The Bible," which can’t save the song, let alone the disc. Not enough variety is on here to differentiate between the rest. After 5 listens, I can’t remember any other exciting points. Monotone comes at all volumes.

Snot was better. Even Ugly Kid Joe was more interesting. Hell, for insincerely angry white boys, I’d rather hear Eminem.

-Ewan Wadharmi

Track Listing:

1. CK Killer
2. Refuse Men
3. Justified
4. The Price Of Reality
5. May Day
6. Under The Robe
7. Dead On The Bible
8. Too Hard To Be Free
9. Ungreatful Dead
10. Piss Virus
11. The Waiting 18
12. Tsake My Head
13. In Your Suit
14. Here’s The Poison

Forrest Day