Back with third skull-fracturing assault nine years beyond their last New Jersey-based brutal thrash metal quartet CONDITION CRITICAL hail merciless devolution and the increasing dementia of the horde on this dual shotgunned third full-length album. Acting as a couple generations removed echoic voice for the fantastical violence and menacing social engineering the harder-edged late 80’s thrash elite prophesied ‘Degeneration Chamber‘ posits the final mutation of mankind as deleterious, a greying of humanity into uncanny beast. Attuned, writ and delivered in as straight forward as possible terms this third time around there’ll be no mistaking this record for anything but a murderous haul of riff obsession and barked-out uproar. You’ve probably heard a few bands that sound like this in the past, the new-era tropes are running thick as the ‘old school’ appeal here, but these folks’ve nailed the niche better than most, delivering one of the more effective machine-tight bruisers in this style of late.

Condition Critical formed circa 2010 between a quartet of folks who’d been otherwise briefly involved in the thrash-adjacent scenery of their state, assembling for something delivered with aggressive precision a la the “brutal thrash metal” of the late 80’s/early 90’s where metallic hardcore ‘tude, Slayer incensed riffcraft and death/thrash metal drumming spawned a style that’d been idealized between Demolition Hammer‘s first two records, Epidemic‘s ‘Decameron‘ alongside similar acts in the Midwest and east coast United States. Their version of this sound has evolved into a pretty straightforward vision The original line-up were quick to push out a decent enough demo (‘Bred to Kill‘, 2011) before switching up the line-up for a debut LP (‘Operational Hazard‘, 2013) which’d made it more clear what they were up to, something like a neothrash version of the suggested thrash metal niche but with some decent kicks of death metal drumming that’ve carried over into each LP since. While I love this kind of stuff and don’t mind a “typical” hard-thrashing record if the riffs come correct the band’s beginnings weren’t all that standout, decent cleanly-shot records that’d hit their target and banked it.

Despite frequent line-up changes Condition Critical have been consistent from album to album, taking some of the raw edge of their first per a sophomore LP (‘Extermination Plan‘, 2016) which’d garnered far more notice wherein cleaner production values, tightened rhythms and the addition of guitarist/vocalist Ryan Taylor (Solstice, ex-Atomik) took their idea to a more pro-level… but also kinda drained the brutal and violent fray of death/thrash from their core. It was a better album overall, the kind of thrash experience I respect and enjoy as repeated tunnel-vision’d listening, but I couldn’t make a huge argument for it standing out beyond an all-pro standard achieved. Nearly a decade later I’d say we basically get a third-level upgrade with similarly tuned thoughts (and enjoyment) on my end. I’d more-or-less put ‘Degeneration Chamber‘ on repeat for about ~2-3 hours every time I picked it up and embraced the ruthless step into each swing of their attack.

That is to say that ‘Degeneration Chamber‘ is a serious burner as a ~34 minute collection of ~3-4 minute “brutal” thrash metal songs which should sport broad appeal per their unflinching take on late 2000’s-era revivalist standards, a solid chunk of loud and riff obsessed stuff. They’re not aiming for 80’s sounds here so much as taking their suggested influences in a more direct thread than ever and this means the death metal edge of earlier releases is mostly scraped away, though opener “Wretched Aggression” and one or two other songs have some briefly blasted sections here and there. In fact that opening piece makes it pretty clear what Condition Critical are aiming at here in terms of presenting a more dynamic pace and a familiarly shot sound despite holding fast to their anxious Warbringer-esque directness spliced with the groovier, sometimes crossover-esque tread bands like Extinction A.D. are known for, we’re not getting a pure ‘Epidemic of Violence‘ clone here at all at any rate. The line between auld brutal thrash and neothrash (re: post-millennial polished fare) is fully blurred here from my perspective and this is not an outlandish result per the band’s past work.

If you’d only heard single “Postmortal Simulation” you’ll likely get the ratio of old-and-new sounds I’m suggesting here right away and I figure for the average thrash metal fan the minutiae will be exciting enough and the songcraft will read pretty damned straight forward. Again, that seems to be the point as ‘Degeneration Chamber‘ punches through its nine songs with such force that it all blurs past within repeated listens; If I had one criticism here it is that the lead guitars mostly smoke but very few add all that much and/or stand out when set within the action. The groovier chunking of “Hydroponic Mutation” finds a few suitable sparks and the cracking “Incubation Disposal” stands out for its Exhorder-esque buzz thanks to a few solos which amp up their illusion of speed but overall these folks rarely just wing out with anything too wild. For my own taste the leads that’d caught my ear most consistently can be found on the askew grooves of “Cryonic Intestinal Preservation“, adding to the superior firepower of Side B in general. This might lack for folks seeking the auld spirit of underground thrash in some sense but if you’ve showed up because Critical Condition‘ve been compared to Demolition Hammer there’ll likely be no real complaints about a few plain solos slung here and there.

After several weeks with ‘Degeneration Chamber‘ I’d found it a welcome sock in the jaw, a thruster pushing record with plenty of riffs worthy of returning to. While they’ve done well to inject some different pacing on a few songs here (notably “Excarnation” and “Postmortal Simulation”) for my own taste there is nothing all that shocking or impressive which occurs on Condition Critical‘s third album beyond holding fast to a high standard and delivering a pro record. In that sense I’ve got a haul of other records in this style I’d probably reach for first but that doesn’t lessen the impact of a reasonably rare feat. Again these folks have gotten it right in all the ways that count and I figure most folks will enjoy their approachable take on peak late 80’s thrash aggression. A moderately high recommendation.

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