Kalen Chase can’t help but add humor to his conversations about Vimic. There were the times he would do Rip Torn impressions with bassist Kyle Kankiel on the road, or explain how after making intensely dark metal, it’s fun to “go eat Cheerios and laugh at a fart joke, or watch a cartoon.”

In a scene like metal full of evil imagery, brooding frontmen, and countless black band tees, he unveils the goofiness behind the oftentimes misunderstood genre.

It’s in direct opposition to how fans would view Vimic’s history. It conjures thoughts of tragedy and loss, of a band’s promising start cut abruptly short. The band’s debut album Open Your Omen was originally slated to be released in 2018. That same year, the album was delayed when lauded co-producer Kato Khandwala was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident. The band members shifted their focus on other projects, and then Joey Jordison’s passing in 2021 furthermore delayed the album’s release. 

Beneath the surface before the tragedy was a brotherhood bonded by laughs and good times. The band started after drummer Joey Jordison parted ways with Slipknot in 2013. He worked on demos for a new project and then reached out to Chase about writing music together. The two had gotten to know each other while touring with Korn in 2007- Jordison as the drummer and Chase as a background singer at only 22 years old. 

“I kind of just wanted to do something slightly different, less doom and gloom, a little more hope with the lyrics, and Joey was super excited about that,” Chase explains about the mindset going into the early stages of Vimic. The impetus was to make something more fun and get the crowd pumped, and the fun was had right from the beginning.

Demos were recorded in Jordison’s home studio. The bandmates would spend 12 hours a day working on material, but they definitely saved room for messing around.

Feeling more like a hang with friends than a workplace, they would play pool, listen to music, and “watch extremely screwed up horror movies and comedies.” There wasn’t the pressure from labels or producers, just some silly guys working on what would still become a highly anticipated record ten years later. 

After recording the album at Sound Farm in Iowa where Slipknot recorded All Hope Is Gone, Vimic hit the road- already bonded through time spent together at Jordison’s home and at Sound Farm. 

The members were of course bonded through music, but they also bonded through their rambunctious humor. “I love all those guys and we make each other laugh, which is my cornerstone for a good relationship,” Chase says. “To find groups that we can be playful with and create and still occasionally look like we’re super brooding and dark is the best-of-both-worlds scenario for our juvenile needs.”

That looseness carried over to Open Your Omen. It’s still dark and intense at times, but with enough stuck-in-your-head melodies and coolness to appeal to a vast majority of metalheads. 

“I hope that we delivered a satisfying record that gives people all the emotional outlets they need. I hope it’s a satisfying listen,” he says. 

The heartfelt anthem “In Your Shadow,” written as an homage to Type O Negative’s Peter Steele, is one of Chase’s favorites from the album. Over the years, it’s meaning has changed. It’s no longer a memorial to Peter Steele, it’s about Joey Jordison. Chase admits it’s a gut-wrencher, but at the same time cathartic. “This is going to be a special performance of that song for absolute sure,” Chase remarks excitedly about Vimic’s upcoming show in LA at Teragram Ballroom this October to honor Jordison. 

Considering it’s the only concert the band has planned, there’s an emphasis on making this a special moment. “We can play the show like it’s our last in this sense, because it very well might be, because the heart of the thing is gone. So we’re going to basically do everything we can to beat for him,” Chase remarks. 

Presented by the Joey Jordison Charitable Fund, the show is a once-in-a-lifetime event to celebrate the album’s release and Joey Jordison. Jordison’s Murderdolls bandmate Wednesday 13 will be supporting, and the guest drummers for the night include Crypta’s Luana Dametto and Ash Pearson from Revocation. Expect some other special guests too as Vimic prepares to honor the record, yet inject something special into this performance as the group aspires to give Joey the send-off the fans want. 

“There’s no option. I have to give the best show I can,” Chase explains as he describes how he’s preparing for the occasion. He’s trying not to overthink it at this point and just stay focused as he gets ready for in-person rehearsals with the band. 

No matter how much his expertise with vocal training kicks into gear, the bittersweet feeling about Vimic reuniting without Jordison still permeates. At moments it’s absolute bliss, and then suddenly it hits- a reminder of what could have been. 

“We have to work just as hard as he would have. So we push through the pain, and that makes it joyful again. But there’s nostalgia, and there’s bittersweet, and there’s excitement,” Chase says. 

The whole point of coming back together was to honor Joey, but it’s not just the band memorializing him: it’s the fans as well. Chase asserts that “this is to honor him, that is the core of this whole thing and to get the fans the music.” 

One aspect of the reunification that wasn’t anticipate was the amount of kindness, compassion, and community solidarity from fans. This year, Joey Jordison’s family initiated a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the release of Open Your Omen. Over $100,000 has been pledged for a $25,000 goal. 

Chase has noticed the cultural shift surrounding metal. There’s a variety of ages at shows, an interest in physical media again, and a resurgence of nu-metal. Heavy music wasn’t as popular during Vimic’s beginnings, and now we have Knocked Loose scaring children on Jimmy Kimmel. 

He reflects on the band’s philosophy he thinks about how metal has changed in the last 10 years: “we wanted to make a metal record, and we didn’t care what the world wanted. We wanted to do it. Now, It couldn’t have been a better time.”

Joey Jordison isn’t here to celebrate Open Your Omen, but he’s always with Vimic in spirit, and that’s exactly how Kalen Chase wants it to be. “I hope that people just remember how incredibly selfless Joey was, musically speaking and personally speaking,” he says. “He wanted to give the kids something fucking awesome! And I hope that we can pull that off for him.”