Amen frontman Casey Chaos has died at the age of 54.
His death was first announced today (December 21) by Cleopatra Records founder and CEO Brian Perera and confirmed by Chaos’ friends, musician Skum Love and Los Angeles photographer Dean Karr.
Amen bassist John Fahnestock later said in a statement: “With a heavy heart and a tear in my eye I must announce that we lost another legend today.
“I’ve lost two legendary frontmen in my career and Casey has now also passed on. It’s was an absolute honor to have been in Amen and witnessed without a doubt the genius that was Casey Chaos.
“He was a force unlike no other before him, a true artist, an uncompromising soul and a true punk rock icon! This is hard for me. I sit here going over all the memories. Just speechless.”
Born in New York in 1970, Chaos was known for his energetic stage persona and his work with other artists including System of a Down, Queens of the Stone Age, Scum and Christian Death, Chaos – real name Karim Chmielnski – was also a high level skateboarder.
Amen formed in Los Angeles in 1994 and enjoyed more success in the UK than in their homeland. The band’s high point was 2000’s Ross Robinson-produced album We Have Come For Your Parents.
That was followed up by 2004’s Death Before Musick, after which Amen went on a lengthy hiatus.
They resurfaced in 2014 Slayer’s Dave Lombardo on drums, although no music was released by this lineup and Death Before Musick remains the band’s last official release.
In a 2014 interview with Metal Hammer, Chaos said: “I’m so grateful that people love us or hate us, but remember us. For me, its never been about commercialism, it’s been about following your heart, destroying it at every single opportunity you have.
“There’s so much of a lack of honesty in music, and it seems like since I went away the model is, become famous, don’t learn how to write songs or play them, just go in the studio and lay them down to a grid and make everything formulaic for the masses.
“The whole culture is just fucked! Bands that actually do talk between songs say the same thing every night! That’s like a job!
“Good for them, but I could never do that. I need it to be unpredictable and I’d rather have the ups and downs of depression and hatred and love, every fucking vibe there is, that be like, ‘okay, we turned up in our rock’n’roll suits for you to play a nice friendly concert.’ We’ll never be friendly!”