Nausea
- Condemned To The System Review
Grindcore veterans Nausea (not to be confused with the
seminal NYC crust band of the same name) prove themselves to still be going
strong in the twenty first century with their second full LP release, Condemned
To The System. Their discography isn’t actually as sparse as that statement
made it seem, because since their formation in 1987 they’ve released a slew of
splits, demos, and compilations along with their debut album. None of which
managed to put them on the map much, it seems, because it was pretty hard to
dredge up even this amount of information. As their premier release in the new
and wonderful world of interwebs, however, this record could be the one that
redefines the very meaning of “old guys who can rock out” and takes the metal
world by storm.
Or not. While it is hard to find any real flaws in this
dense thirty minutes and fifty six seconds of pure, old school grind, it’s also
hard to find any innovation. While the occasional doomy riff or lick of southern
hardcore serves to make the experience less bland, it definitely doesn’t pique
much interest. Fans of grind won’t find anything to complain about, however,
from Freedom of Religion’s slow, heavy beginning to Absence of War’s blazing, angry
ending. Condemned To The System will definitely solidify what fans they already
have, and draw in any hardcore grindcore fans that haven’t heard of them yet
(seriously, if you consider yourself a fan of grindcore in the style of early
Napalm Death give this a spin). And if you’re worried about all that death that
seems to sneak into the grindcore these days, (not that Aborted doesn’t rock my
fucking face off, of course) have no fear. Nothing but good-old hardcore-punk
derived madness to be found here.
The
themes of the album are obviously political, from the album artwork to the song
names to the angry grunting. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what each
song is about, and there’s no real need to read the lyric sheets or do any pesky
analyzing. These guys are pissed. At the government. And the businesses. Fuck
the system. Rarg. You get the idea.
The
production quality leaves absolutely nothing to be desired, mixing the drums
and guitars well, while the vocals remain at a steady middle-of-the mix, not
too in-your-face, not too distant volume. The overall sound does tend to get a
bit muddled and sludgy at times, but that’s more so the style of music being
played than the production. The guitars remain solid throughout without falling
prey to my biggest grindcore pet-peeve of all, using the lowest drop-whatever
tuning possible to come off as heavy and br00tal. The guitars are heavy because
the RIFFS are heavy, and that’s the way good grindcore should be (not that I
don’t appreciate some good-ol distortion, mind you). The bass guitar remains
important without being weirdly at the head of the mix, or doing the
all-the-other-instruments-stop-playing-randomly-but-the-bass-because-he’s-feeling-left-out
thing. The drums are classic grind through-and-through with just enough
variation to not feel boring, which is ideal for a classic grindcore record
like this. They do seem a tiny bit stale after a while, but what’s a drummer to
do when the guitars are doing the same types of stuff all the time? The vocals
are good but remain pretty static throughout, not really deviating from the
punkily rushed death grunt lows and the sickly-dying-dude highs at any point.
They’re actually pretty understandable sometimes, too, which is always nice for
a metal song, adding a whole new dynamic to the listening experience.
For someone who enjoys grind but doesn’t worship the
ground it walks on, this album gets a bit tedious, especially the intros. For
the first half of the album almost every song starts with slow, crunching
guitars then deviates into crushing grind riffs and blast beats. The pacing is
decent overall, with some cool little gems thrown in in the middle and end.
Just as things were getting boring, Hate & Deception brings in a decent
guitar solo that got me interested in where things were going again, which says
a lot coming from someone who doesn’t like guitar solos that much. The very
next track, Corporation Pull-In, laid another little surprise on me,
gang-vocals. Which did seem little odd for this record, but it actually sounded
really well-placed and definitely kept me interested. They were definitely the
most brutal gang-vocals I’ve ever heard, too, sounding like an entire room of
death metal screamers screaming at once, as opposed to just some random,
talentless guys yelling. So I suppose I take back what I said about this record
not doing anything innovative (if you could call that innovation). Fuck the
World brings another good, almost disgusting sounding solo, perhaps a bit too
close to the other solo, but that's just coming from someone who isn't overly
fond of solos. Falsely Accused is a bit of a step back, perhaps the most
generic and lackluster song on the record, but not necessarily bad. In Condemn
Big Business there’s not so much a solo as a wailing little imp in the
background, which is good for me, maybe not so good for solo aficionados (if
that’s even a thing). The penultimate track, And We Suffer, brings some
down-right sludge to the table,
providing the slowest and one of the heaviest songs on the album, as well as
the most interesting drumming. While I did enjoy the track a lot, it was a bit
too off the grindy path for me, which is only a problem because the rest of the
album was so straightforward. The ending track, Absence of War, would have been
a lot better if I hadn’t heard several very similar riffs already on the same
record. That said, it’s still one of the best tracks on the album, managing to
be interesting and dynamic without straying even one inch from the grind. It’s
got the best intro part of the entire album, as well as the best vocal
performance.
To wrap it up, this is good ol grindcore, nothing more,
nothing less. Definitely nothing less.
Favorite tracks: Corporation
Pull-In, Condemn Big Business, And We Suffer, Absence of War
Least-favorite track:
Falsely Accused
Personal Enjoyment
Rating: 6.5/10
Objective Rating: 8/10
-Panton
