This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Amen? More like A Man.
Near as I can tell, Death Before Musick is basically a solo disc from Amen’s vengeful god Casey Chaos, who wrote, recorded and produced these 15 tracks himself “at various studios … houses (and) garages” over the past couple of years. In music-speak, that’s usually code for ‘Warning! Contains crappy, self-indulgent home recordings!’ But in this case, it translates into Amen’s fiercest and finest CD. Trading in last year’s nü-metal garb for second-hand punk stylings that suit him better, the homicidal Chaos crosses Jello Biafra’s yowl with Johnny Rotten’s sneer on hooky mosh-pit anthems like Oblivion Stereo, Neutron Liars and We Got the Bait. Even the tinny demo-fi production, garage-band grooves and wall-of-distortion guitars work to his advantage, adding grit and authenticity to the mix. If this is the sort of chaos that Chaos can create on his own, consider me a born-again follower.
