OUT TODAY: Long Awaited Album from Acclaimed Heavy Metal Act VIMIC + LA Show Honoring Joey Jordison Legacy

EMSU Media
7 days ago
5 min read

OUT TODAY: Long Awaited Album Open Your Omen from Acclaimed Heavy Metal Act VIMIC Premiered via Spill Magazine + LA Show Honoring Joey Jordison Legacy Following Successful Kickstarter Campaign

Tickets for Reunion Show

Watch the Kickstarter Video

"…full of shreddy guitar accents, while Chase’s tuneful rasp sits a few registers higher than Steele’s iconic baritone — Vimic’s vocalist “immediately caught a melodic connection” to the Drab Four when he was first presented with the tune.”

- REVOLVER

“It’s a 60-min barrage of mostly fully-structured, well-rounded, hard-hitting modern metal bangers that are impeccably in touch with the contemporary sensibilities of melodic metal and rock ‘n’ roll. If anything, it’s a gigantic credit towards Jordison as the mastermind of this record, as it appears he’s able to keep his finger on the pulse of culturally significant music and its most attractive sensibilities almost a decade after a great majority of these songs were written.” -SPILL MAGAZINE

Following a successful Kickstarter Campaign that raised over $100,000 to fund the release of the long-awaited Open Your Omen album, VIMIC and the family of Joey Jordison are ready for today’s album release and likely one-time-only reunion event honoring their brother.

The Jordison family states, “Joey’s music was his soul, and the Joey Jordison Charitable Fund is honored to support the release of VIMIC’s long-awaited, Open Your Omen album and the concert dedicated to Joey’s legacy. His passion for music touched countless lives, and this collaboration ensures his spirit continues to inspire both fans and fellow musicians. We are deeply grateful to all the contributing artists for their partnership in creating a tribute worthy of Joey’s memory. We know he’s smiling down on us, proud of the new VIMIC album, the concert that will bring so many people together in his honor and his charity that’s putting instruments in the hands of young people in our community. For us, it’s not just about music, it’s about love, family, and the incredible bond Joey built with his fans. This is all for him.”

Open Your Omen is VIMIC's only album that has been completed and shelved since 2016. VIMIC will be reuniting for the first time since 2018 in conjunction with the album's release. Joey Jordison's sisters have worked on securing the rights to the music over the years to honor their brother and provide the fans with what they have been requesting since before Joey passed.

Vocalist Kalen Chase adds, "'Open Your Omen' was originally conceived as the start of a new chapter. It was an exciting adventure for all of us and we were (and still are) so very proud of what we made. Nine years and several losses of life later, we’re white-knuckling it and will barely be able to contain ourselves before our music bowels explode. In other words, we are very excited for the release of this album after it has been shelved for so long."

The reunion show will take place at Teragram Ballroom, the Joey Jordison Charitable Fund will not only honor Jordison’s memory but also celebrate the release of the album. VIMIC will be supported by Wednesday 13 (who worked with Jordison in Murderdolls) along with some very special guests, including drummers Ash Pearson (3 Inches of Blood), Chris Williams (Accept), Luanna Demetto (Crypta), Shaun Riekena (Taciturn), Caleb Hayes (10-year-old prodigy), Deen Castronovo (Journey), and more TBA. There will also be exclusive event merchandise available.

Funds raised from the Kickstarter campaign were utilized to release Open Your Omen on CD/Double LP, market the album, print merch that Joey Jordison was involved with designing years ago, and produce the reunion event in October. Proceeds from the event will be focused on the Joey Jordison Charitable Fund’s partnership with Broken Strings. Broken Strings is a Non-Profit in Iowa (where Joey and his family are from) that gives out guitars to kids in each school district. The family would like to be able to do the same thing, but with drums.

About VIMIC:

After Jordison departed from Slipknot in late 2013, he shifted his focus to various other ventures. One of these projects, Scar the Martyr, released a self-titled album before disbanding, with some of its members going on to create a new band called VIMIC. The initial lineup of VIMIC included Jordison on drums, Kalen Chase as the vocalist, Jed Simon and Kris Norris on guitars, Kyle Konkiel on bass, and Matthew Tarach on keyboards. They debuted their first single, "Simple Skeletons," on May 6, 2016 via Sirius XM’s Liquid Metal and received high praise from Loudwire, New Noise Magazine, Blabbermouth, and NME, among others. Norris left shortly after its release and later that year, VIMIC introduced Steve Marshall as their new second guitarist.

VIMIC released four singles from the project between May 2016 and October 2017: “Simple Skeletons,” “She Sees Everything,” “My Fate,” and “Fail Me (My Temple),” the last of which featured Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine.

About Open Your Omen:

The band’s first album, Open Your Omen, was first expected to be released in 2018. Produced by Jordison and Kato Khandwala (The Pretty Reckless, Pop Evil), progress came to a standstill in 2018. Khandwala tragically passed away in a motorcycle accident on April 25, 2018, and Jordison, Konkiel, and Simon shifted their focus to Sinsaenum, Bad Wolves, and Imonolith, respectively. Jordison sadly passed away on July 26, 2021, further delaying the plans on the album.

After years of working to secure the rights to the music, the Jordison Family Estate is releasing Open Your Omen independently to get the album into the hands of the fans that have been asking for it for years.

In a December 2016 interview with Shockwave Magazine, the late and famed Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison discussed the making of his other project VIMIC’s first album: "The way we wrote 'Open Your Omen', is exactly like how a garage band would do their demo tape. We went all the way back to the basics, and it was cool doing it like that because you didn't have the influence of your label, and the huge studio, and cars, hotels, and fancy dinners, all this b—---- that goes on along with being in the record industry. It was done literally in my home, organic, and we went out just to the studio not too far from my house and we just laid it down there. So, it was pretty much born in my home and then we just cruised up to the studio and just laid it down really quick."