Formed by members of Death, Massacre and Wombbath, Inhuman Condition hit the streets with a wet, disgusting thud via their 2021 Rat°God debut. It was a painfully retro throwback to late 80s death metal and no new stones were turned, but it was a ton of dumb, beefbrained fun packed with enough nostalgia to bring all the Steels to the boneyard. Now scarcely a year later Inhuman Condition is back with a whole new album. Talk about inhuman working conditions! When I first saw Fearsick scheduled for a 2022 release, I felt a pang of concern that the band might be rushing sub-par material out to market. Lord knows we spend plenty of time bashing bands for long layoffs between releases, but the era of the yearly record release schedule is dead and buried. Or so it seemed. So is Fearsick another retro humdinger of moronic death fun, or was I right to have grave reservations? Let’s exhume to consume.
Featuring the same lineup and mission statement, Fearsick sounds like a continuation of Rat°God, but in the early stages it really struggles to get traction. Opening cut “The Mold Testament” has a great pun and an intro riff that sounds like “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” wrung through a death metal juicer, but it comes across like Machine Head doing half-assed death metal – cartoony and stupid. I don’t mind some unseriousness on a death platter, but this kind of thing hurt the last album at times, and to lead with it is a bad omen. Tracks like “Recycled Hate” and “Caustic Vomit Reveries” never seem to get out of low-gear, delivering super simple, low-grade death in the ruptured vein of Six Feet Under. It isn’t until mid-album piece “King Con” that things start to feel somewhat more engaging and memorable, and that’s a bit late in this game of death.
And even at that point, there’s not much here to really grab the listener and shake the brain loose. “Fencewalker” is the most dynamic offering, wandering between vintage Death and Massacre moments into a doomy, ominous segment that works well. Some well-placed whammy dives close the deal and make you wish the rest of Fearsick brought as much punch to the table. Things close decently with “Where Pain is Infinity” but as the album drop into silence, it’s impossible to avoid the feeling that the band rushed this effort and should have let the material marinate much longer on the meat hook. There’s not one track here that rivals the material on Rat°God and even the highlights are just okay and nothing more. Things often feel too stripped-down, simplistic, and caveman, rivaling even the low-brow stupidity of Jungle Rot. The 36-minute runtime also suggests this was a rush job, though the conciseness is certainly appreciated in this case.
With such a seasoned crew running the show, it’s fair to expect more than what Fearsick delivers. Terry Butler is death metal royaly with time in Death, Massacre, Obituary, Six Feet Under, and Denial Fiend. Unfortunately, it seems he found his inspiration this time from his days in Six Feet Under and Denial Fiend. The song structures offer little in the way of memorability or excitement, though they do mimic the 80s death sound well enough. Taylor Nordberg (Deicide, Ribspreader, ex-Massacre, ex-Wombbath) serves up uber-basic riffs and plenty of hammy whammy dives, but few of the leads will stick to the walls of your skull or raise your blood temperature. Jermaine Kling (Ex-Deo, Ribspeader, ex-Massacre, ex-Wombbath) does a respectable job vocally, landing somewhere between Kam Lee and Corpsegrinder. He also handles drums well. The problem is the rudimentary song structures and the lack of memorable hooks. The writing feels rushed and unpolished and there’s an absence of throat-crushing intensity running throughout the album.
Whenever Fearsick ends, my mp3 player rolls right into Rat°God and it’s always like a hard slap in the face with a cold, dead fish. It’s startling how much more urgent, aggressive and fun the material there was compared to what Fearsick provides. This isn’t a terrible album, and it has some fun moments, but it’s quite the steep dropoff from what we heard a year ago. I definitely want to hear more from Inhuman Condition since what they do is so squarely rooted in my wheelhouse. I just hope they take way more time to develop the songs next time out. The world doesn’t need another Six Feet Under so death to death metal sweatshops!
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Listenable Insanity
Websites: inhumancondition.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/Inhumanconditionband
Releases Worldwide: July 15th, 2022
