Description

Blue vinyl with lyric insert and The Shore EP from 1995 as bonus

This band was among the second wave of Thrash getting snapped up by labels in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Mountlake Terrace Washington was where it all started in 1985 when Tony Benjamins, Colin Mattson, and Brad Hull formed the band Condition Critical and released one demo in April of 1987 called ‘All Fucked Up’. The band soon changed names, got to work and issued the demos “Thrashing Helpless Down” in August, 1987 and ‘Hate Fills Your Eyes’ the following year, the latter featuring a quite thought-provoking piece of cover art as well. A deal with Relativity/Combat followed and the band recorded their debut, ‘Uncertain Future’, in January of 1989 and shot an accompanying video for the track ‘Bludgeon’. The lyrics covered standard thrash topics of politics and war. The sound on the album is great despite the low budget production. The thunderous bass errie trills, slides and power chords give this album a truly original sound in a time where everyone was trying to rip off Slayer, Metallica or Possessed. While not attaining the commercial success that befell many of their contemporaries they certainly upped the ante musically. This album has more hooks than a tackle box and more changes per song than some bands had in an entire record. Not that bands after them didn’t go above and beyond, but not many in the thrash landscape of 89 were as good. If you enjoyed any part of the San Francisco Scene in the late 80’s (Forbidden, Vio-lence,Testament) you should enjoy this. This album has yet to be appreciated by the masses. This re-issue includes the mini album ‘The Shore’ as bonus.

Track listing:
1. Bludgeon
2. Kaleidoscope Of Pain
3. A Look Through Glass
4. Anaconda
5. Octoclops
6. Unrest They Find
7. Morgulon
8. Foreign Policy
9. Miasma
10. Sore
11. Sole Train
12. Licking My Wound