Casey Chaos | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Karim George Chmielinski |
| Born | October 9, 1969 New York City, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter, musician, artist |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, drums |
| Years active | 1982–present |
| Labels | Virgin, Roadrunner, Sony BMG, Candlelight, Cleopatra, Refuse |
| Website | officialcaseychaos |
Karim Chmielinski (born October 9, 1969), known professionally as Casey Chaos, is an American singer and musician. His music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including hardcore punk, death rock, and metal. He is the vocalist and songwriter of the metal band Amen.
Karim George Chmielinski was born in New York on October 9, 1969, the only child of a Polish father and French-Italian mother who were 30 years apart in age. When he was seven, his parents separated and Casey, as he was known, moved with his mother to Melbourne, Florida, where he did not fit in and was bullied; on one occasion, local kids beat him to the point where he was hospitalized. He began Self-harming through cutting, then found a focus in Skateboarding.[1] By age 10, was touring professionally. His parents invested his earnings in real estate; he owned his first house at age 15.
While Chmielinski was responsible enough to continue going to school, he was spending his time with much older boys. As he told Rolling Stone in 2001, he started using Cocaine when he was 10; at 15, he used Heroin to alleviate the pain from a broken arm and became addicted. The result was permanent damage to his Respiratory system and the necessity of taking lung medications for the rest of his life.[2]
In 1984, fellow skateboarder Duane Peters played him a tape by the band Black Flag. Chmielinski became enough of a fan that he started corresponding with Henry Rollins and his friend, Ian MacKaye.[3] He then decided to start his own band. He created Casey and the Skate Punx, and recruited bassist Scot Lade, drummer Bill Irwin (drums) and his childhood friend from New York, guitarist Ken Decter (aka Duke Decter). They changed the band name to 'Disorderly Conduct'; Decter started going by the moniker 'Ugly Stupid' and then settled on 'Duke'; Chmielinski changed his name to Casey Chaos. They began writing songs and playing the Florida punk scene, with Chaos handling bookings and promotion. Between his powerful voice and the band’s high-energy presence, they became well-known and popular, with people traveling from as far as Atlanta to catch their shows.[4] One of their first songs, "How Old Are You", was included in a 1985 punk compilation album.[5] In 1986, they independently released the album Amen.[6]
From the beginning, however, the band's high-energy performances often degenerated into too much rowdiness, even for the punk scene. Chaos' method of riling up his audience included blood: he would cut himself on stage. This would become his trademark, but it was not necessarily contrived. As he told Rolling Stone, "Blood is like sweat when we're playing. It gets out of control, I hear--I never know what's going on."[2] Lade, who was older than the rest of the band and the manager of a national-chain record store, was responsible for the venues. When yet another venue was trashed by the audience, he quit the band. Irwin followed.[7]
As Disorderly Conduct began negotiating with Metal Blade Records for the release of their new recording Atrocity, Chaos and band guitarist Duke Decter moved to California and changed the name of the band to the title of their first album, Amen. Upon meeting Rikk Agnew (Adolescents, D.I., Christian Death), Amen was briefly put into hibernation while the pair began a musical collaboration which led to Chaos playing bass for a short tour with the reunited original Christian Death. Afterwards, Chaos returned to Amen and recorded Slave, a full length independent album which led to a record deal with Roadrunner Records and the 1999 official debut release of Amen's self-titled album Amen. As the notorious actions of Casey Chaos and his band grew during the subsequent tour,[citation needed] Roadrunner released the band from their contract and they were swiftly picked up by Virgin Records. Casey Chaos and band found a home at their new label, which strongly pushed and promoted the band, leading to the release of their second album in 2001, the highly successful We Have Come For Your Parents, also produced by Ross Robinson.
In 2003, the band was once again released from their existing contract. Upon hearing this Daron Malakian of System of a Down sought to sign the band as his first acquisition for his newly created imprint label with Sony BMG, EatUrMusic Records. The label released Amen's Death Before Music in 2003, and a video for the single "California's Bleeding".[8]
In 2007, Amen performed on season 2 of The Henry Rollins Show.
In 2004, Casey Chaos began a side project consisting of Chaos, black metal icons Samoth and Bård Faust from Emperor, and Happy Tom from Turbonegro, and in 2005 Scum's Gospels for the Sick was released.,[9] and the album was nominated for the Alarm Awards (Norwegian music awards) in the metal category, but lost to Stonegard. The album also has guest appearances including Mortiis[10] and Nocturno Culto of Darkthrone.
In 2003, Chaos collaborated with EatUrMusic label partner Daron Malakian to form a side project called Scars On Broadway.
In 2006, Chaos performed with Rat Scabies and Brian James, former members of original 1976 English punk band the Damned to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of the release of their debut album Damned Damned Damned, by performing the album in its entirety at London's historic 100 Club. In the same year, Casey Chaos received a Grammy Award Certificate[11] for co-writing "B.Y.O.B." for the band System of a Down. The credit was revoked in 2010 after a court case precipitated by Chaos' selling some of his interest to a third party.[12]
In 2012, Chaos collaborated with Ross Robinson again for a movie documentary entitled House Of Shock, also featuring Dave Lombardo of Slayer fame on drums and Gary Holt of Exodus on guitar.
Chmielinski was arrested in Los Angeles on July 5, 2012, after he allegedly smashed his SUV into parked cars in the Studio City area of Los Angeles. Some reports indicated that as many as fifteen vehicles were allegedly hit,[13] but a more accurate statistic appears to be three.[14] Police state that the musician abandoned his vehicle after causing the destruction but they were able to track him down at his home. After testing, the musician registered a blood alcohol level just above .08 — the legal limit in California.[15] Although a neighbor witnessed the entire alcohol test and said, "he was stumbling all over the sidewalk",[16] the reading reveals that Chaos had consumed slightly upwards of a single beer in what was curiously publicized as an alleged "drunken demolition derby".[15]
