For me it was a dream come true,” says Casey Chaos,”I did the impossible. I reformed Emperor. How cool is that? I got to sing with my favourite band.
” In case you’ve just come back from an extended vacation in Guantanamo Bay or something, let us fill you in briefly on Scum. Scum is a project involving the garrulous Amen frontman along with the cream of the Norwegian – and just plain heavy metal – scenes. Their debut album sounds like a punk rock album (punk as in Conflict, , the Subhumans, The Exploited) though with contributions from everyone from Turbonegro’s Happy Tom and Euroboy, to Nocturno Culto from Darkthrone and the aforementioned original Emperor back-line of Samoth and Faust (with one time bassist Mortiis contributing lyrics and singing on a couple of tracks) it is, inevitably, a pretty dark and twisted one.
Just the way punk rock ought to be in fact. Is it a great album? Not really, but it is a great piece of history. The achievement isn’t the record itself as actually getting that line-up together in the first place.
As Doctor Johnson once remarked of talking dogs, you don’t criticise what they say as much as express amazement that it’s happening at all. Casey, never a man to mince his words, has typically high hopes for the record. “This is an album of action and freedom,” he says.
“A unique alliance to address the state of affairs in music, and bring life to a dead and politically correct society. Scum has just begun to spread its filt.