Sounds From The Junkshop #119 - Amen
"There's fear in your valley/Get on your skateboard and split" - Amen - California's Bleeding It seems weird to think it now but there was a brief time in the early noughties when Amen genuinely did seem like one of the most vital US rock bands around. Rising up during the nu-metal era, they managed to not only get good press in the usual places of Kerrang! but even the NME were briefly featuring them regularly - I remember in one review, they were describing Amen's frontman Casey Chaos as the new Jello Biafra, high praise indeed. Me? Well, I hate to admit it but Amen were one of those bands who by rights I should've liked but I never quite got my head around. And it wasn't for lack of trying - I had all three of their albums in my CD collection at some point and I saw them live on a few occasions (they toured with the Wildhearts quite a bit as the two bands were good friends which will become relevant in a few paragraphs' time). Their sound was t...