INHUMAN CONDITION
Mind Trap
Listenable Insanity Records
INHUMAN CONDITION began as something of a "fuck you" to MASSACRE and its mainman Kam Lee by three ex-members of the band but has evolved into an ongoing, and rather productive, thing. Mind Trap is the third album from the trio, to go along with a couple of EPs, since guitarist Taylor Nordberg and drummer/vocalist Jeramie Kling split rather publicly with Lee in 2020 and joined up with bassist Terry Butler, who had been in and out of MASSACRE several times.
For the 2021 debut Rat°God, Nordberg and Kling took with them not only the material they had been writing for what was to be a new MASSACRE album but the INHUMAN CONDITION name from MASSACRE's 1992 EP - and its logo font. Not surprisingly, the album sounded quite a bit like classic MASSACRE, but seemed to have served its purpose in providing some catharsis, and a measure of revenge, for Kling and Nordberg following their tumultuous tenure with Lee.
Since then, INHUMAN CONDITION has worked to put some sonic distance between itself and MASSACRE, all while the three members are busy with a number of other, often higher-profile, commitments - Butler plays with OBITUARY, Norberg with DEICIDE and Kling with OVERKILL, and both Kling and Norberg are members of THE ABSENCE and are/have been hired touring guns for a number of other acts. With Mind Trap there is a bit of an aesthetic change as well, as the band gnarlied up the logo for more of a melting flesh/dripping blood effect that isn't quite the knockoff that it was.
Musically, the album forgoes any MASSACRE-style pomp, drama or fantastical storylines and just rips, delivering a death/thrash metal battering that bristles with raw energy, all topped by Kling rasping shouts and Nordberg's chunky, rough-shod riffs. Mind Trap's nine tracks are dispatched in an efficient 32 minutes that still leaves plenty of room left for memorable grooves and hooks as it gallops along.
After a somewhat clunky opening in "Severely Lifeless", Mind Trap springs to life with the bracing, delightfully sick "Face For Later" that features lyrics and backing vocals from CANNIBAL CORPSE drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz. It's surprisingly catchy, despite its literal, Texas Chainsaw Massacre-like subject matter - "I was forced to flay her / And save the face for later" - and is a high-water mark here.
"The Betterment Plan", "Mind - Tool - Weapon", "Chaos Engine" and others are more cerebral - in a direct, almost hardcore manner - and less grotesque yet boast an old school Florida death metal chug-and-sprint delivery and whammy-laden dive bomb leads that are both familiar and quite effective. With its acoustic intro and technical dalliances, "Recollections Of The Future" recalls DEATH during its transformative Human era and is another standout.
It also demonstrates the more adventurous side INHUMAN CONDITION has developed it has gelled as band - even though Kling and Nordberg have been playing together for decades. The stutter-steppy "Obscurer" and "Science of Discontent" show more of this savvy and spunk and send the album out with almost jaunty flair that brings a contemporary edge and separates the trio from the likes of, say, GRUESOME, which is content with old school DEATH worship - and makes no claims to the contrary.
Where 2022's Fearsick was rushed out as a follow up to Rat°God, and not surprisingly sounded, well, rushed out and a bit chock-a-block, Mind Trap feels confident, well thought out and more fully formed. Its tidy package of good (for the most part) songs and inspired execution still mines the membership's MASSACRE past to a degree but goes a good way in allowing INHUMAN CONDITION to cement an identity of its own going forward.
3.5 Out Of 5.0
