Fans of early Napalm Death are going to want to listen up. Los Angeles' Nausea (not to be confused with the seminal NYC crust punk band of the same name) are getting ready to drop a brand new slab of old school political grindcore on the world, entitled Condemned To The System. There's no post-anything here, just 30 minutes of non-stop grinding fury.
The members of Nausea have done time in such genre heavyweight bands as Terrorizer, Phobia, Majesty, Exhumed, and Intronaut. These guys aren't wet behind the ears, they've been making quality grindcore and heavy metal for years. That experience shows in the tight songwriting and catchy hooks present throughout Condemned To The System. The hyper-political lyrical content found on the album may not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you like old school grind, you'll like this album. And really, if you don't like mixing politics with your music, what are you doing listening to grindcore to begin with?
Condemned To The System begins with "Freedom Of Religion," a relatively long (by grindcore standards at least) track about why religion sucks. It sets the tone for the rest of the album, as most of the songs deal with why one ideology or another sucks. The lyrics aren't terribly sophisticated, but neither is the music. If you don't feel like reading a lyric sheet, the song titles mostly spell out what each song is railing against. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what "Corporation Pull-In,"Condemn Big Business," and "Absence of War" are about, but sometimes it's nice to just relax and let your inner angry teenager rage against the machine for a bit.
Musically, Nausea sound like straight up traditional grindcore. If you like Scum and World Downfall you'll like Condemned To The System. This is no frills grindcore from veterans of the genre. Oscar Garcia, the vocalist on Terrorizer's classic World Downfall, provides his signature rapid fire punk-by-way-of-death-metal growl to all the songs on the album. Meanwhile, guitars grind your eardrums while Eric Castro's crusty drum patterns batter you into submission. The whole album sounds like it was transported straight from 1989 to your speakers.
Although Nausea aren't blazing any new trails on Condemned To The System, they've demonstrated that they're still capable of writing exciting music. This album isn't going to make any year end lists, but who cares about innovation when faced with high quality classic grindcore? You can preorder Condemned To The System right now through Willowtip records and the album will be released on January 17th.
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