We Have Come For Your Parents

vote
8.5

• Band:
  AMEN
• Duration: 00:44:12
• Available from: 10/31/2000
• Label:

• Virgin

It will not be 'The most extreme album ever released under a major label' – as Ross Robinson resoundingly declared at the time, although Slayer, Pantera and Slipknot would likely have had something to say about it – but it is undeniable that Amen's third album, ideally destined to launch the band into the mainstream firmament in tow of the nu metal bandwagon, has collected crumbs compared to what it deserved.
Formed in 1994 as a solo project by Casey Chaos, author and sole composer of the debut “Slave” released that same year, Amen soon caught the attention of the aforementioned Ross Robinson, who secured them a contract with Roadrunner and convinced the frontman to recruit other musicians, including Shannon Larkin (already behind the skins for Ugly Kid Joe and later in Godsmack) and Snot guitarist Sonny Mayo.
Their eponymous major label debut was released in June 1999, but Roadrunner dropped them almost immediately due to poor sales results (especially when compared to the worldwide success of nine masked label and tour mates), so, once again, their producer saved them, securing them a deal with Virgin; that's how “We Have Come For Your Parents” (a tribute to the historic “We Have Come For Your Children” by The Dead Boys) was released the following year.
Despite the push of Robinson – a sort of Midas of the recording industry at the time, having helped launch Korn, Slipknot and At The Drive In – and the excellent critical acclaim, songs like “The Price Of Reality”, “Too Hard To Be Free” or “The Waiting 18” (chosen as the first three singles for their more 'commercial' appeal) did not even touch the charts in their homeland, obtaining some recognition only in England: the wild mix of punk, hardcore and (nu) metal did not meet with the approval of the general public, and even the nihilistic and self-destructive attitude of the five failed to make it onto the screen, unlike that of other bands with a more recognisable image.
It's a real shame, because after a quarter of a century the two minutes of vitriolic “CK Killer”, the anarchic climax of “Justified” or the MDMA-fueled alternative of “Under The Robe” have not lost an ounce of their rhythmic power, thanks to a production capable of amplifying the effect to the maximum.controlled chaos' compared to the rawer previous album; similarly, although Casey Chaos is not a composer / lyricist capable of competing with the best strumming pens of the Nineties (Nirvana, Helmet, Rage Against The Machine, Nine Inch Nails and Marylin Manson, to name just a few of the heavyweights), the howl of rebellion of “Refuse Amen”, the iconoclastic fury of “Dead On The Bible” or the 'no logo' invective of the aforementioned “CK Killer” still maintain their subversive charge despite the lyrics written with a thick-tipped marker. Even songs that seem minor in the economy of the album (“Piss Virus”, “In Your Suit” or “Take My Had”) heard today sweep away the Machine Head of the time, not to mention the unexpressed potential of the conclusive “Here's The Poison” (perhaps the most similar to the reviled nu metal).
Illegitimate children of Black Flag, christened by the godfather of Korn, Amen were destined to go out like a short fuse, also given their uncompromising attitude in live performances (those who were at the Palavobis in 2001 will remember a wild show together with Mudvayne, supporting the nine masked men on the “Iowa” tour), but in a parallel multiverse “We Have Come For Your Parents” remains one of the symbolic albums that sealed the end with a bang of the most alternative decade in music history.