CONDITION CRITICAL
Operational Hazard
(Burned By God Records)
30:40min

I actually could make it quite short here because "Operational Hazard", the debut by New Jersey’s furious Thrash commando CONDITION CRITICAL, is an absolute killer of an album. Founded back in 2010 the band immediately started to gather a loyal local fan base due to their high energy laden live shows. The hard work logically resulted in a four track demo called "Bred To Kill" which saw the light of day in 2011. This one was a good start for this promising outfit but the real deal was yet to come. A few months ago (in July 2013 to be exactly) the wait was finally over. The four piece was able to capture their live power in the studio and banned it onto CD. These Thrashers recorded a total raging album which delivers a quite merciless kind of thrashing mayhem. Due to their violent brand of extreme Metal the horde is called DEMOLITION HAMMER JR. by their followers and press. And if you have a listen to their tracks then you easily know why they got this nickname. This riffing massacre, combined with murderous speed and excellent songwriting, really revives the spirit of this legendary maniacal force from New York. Eight skullsplitting tracks with only the best ingredients you can imagine will drive you insane and (much more) a diabolical grin in your face. Relentless drumming pulverizes everything to dust that crosses their path. The axes, swung by Sam & Alonso, are sharp like razorblades with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel. The headbanging level even gets an additional boost by the furious leads. The vocal performance is almost always at the edge of madness and the cool gang shouts are great like the one’s from their idols (DEMOLITION HAMMER). The production, which was done by Brian Elliot and the band, is powerful and compliments all tunes quite well. A killer cover artwork by the Ed Repka is just the icing of the cake of a brillant old school album. I can highly recommend this high explosive cocktail to everyone out there seriously into Thrash Metal. This one will shave your heads. For more infos and ordering details just visit www.conditioncriticalthrash.com or www.burnedbygodrecords.com.

Michael Oelschlegel

Michael Oelschlegel

Related reviews / interviews:
CONDITION CRITICAL - Bred To Kill (Luxi Lahtinen)

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