Nausea

Extinction (1990)

Brandon Sideleau

A very overlooked masterpeice of late 80's hardcore punk metal. Nausea took the lyrical protest direction of their mentors (England's infamous Crass) and framed it around heavy, fast and grinding metallic hardcore. Nausea were formed at sometime during the late '80's in New York City's then burgeoning hardcore scene. This is their first and only official, complete album, although as of the present day there are quite a few very complete compilations of their earlier work (with a different, but similar vocalist) readily available.

The new, extended version of this album features 7 extra tracks, including one of the bands best tracks "Cybergod". The production is raw, loud and yet also very audible and clear. the opening track is called "Tech-No-Logic-Kill" and begins almost Sabbath-esque with a a very melodic, dark build up into the impending thrash fest with male vocalist Al Long growling like an anmial over the chaos. Lyrical topics include pollution ("Inherit The Wasteland"), animal rights ("Butchers"), war ("Johnny Got His Gun"), and religion ("Godless"), among others. The band is also similar to Crass in the fact that it features female vocals on half the album from the powerful Amy Miret, which adds an excellent sense of variety in sound and demension to the album, making not a single second boring.

If you are a fan of Crass, F Minus, Discharge, or any other similar bands you will definitely want to check out this amazing peice of hardcore history.