We Have Come For Your Parents

Another appeal to the armies of alienated youth, We Have Come For Your Parents is a 14-track manifesto of unAmerican, anti-establishment, bible-burning rants. Flaming flags and schoolchildren resplendent in crowns of thorns and automatic weaponry adorn the album cover, and Amen’s music wallows in the same imagery, which is too blunt and directly brutal to be really subversive.

As is customary, the religious right get kicked all over the place, specifically in ‘Refuse Amen’ and ‘Dead On The Bible’, while fashion fascism is targeted in ‘Calvin Klein’s The Killer.’

Frontman Casey Chaos has an obvious fascination with the kind of social climate that could engender acts like the Columbine high-school shootings (although the most hardened cynic might argue that he seems envious of the notoriety that goes with being publicly associated with such an incident).

Lyrically, the songs are crawling with goth rock clichés, but musically the material is taut and adrenal and jostling with echoes of The Pixies and MC5. It’s rage in concentrated doses – and the rage is real, not merely a Marilyn Manson-schooled attempt to shock and sell records.

This album is squarely aimed at the disenfranchised adolescent and as such it offers a broad manual of rebellious thought and disturbing imagery. Amen – they have come for your children.