Condition Critical Degeneration Chamber Review
Condition Critical
Degeneration Chamber
Self-released
2025
New Jersey. The land of no left turns, not pumping your own gas, pork rolls and an enduring and thriving metal scene which has brought us some of the best thrash in existence. Well, in 2025, that trend continues and goes harder than Tony Soprano wolfing down a bialy with Condition Critical’s latest, Degeneration Chamber.
If you are unfamiliar with these maniacs, they got their start in 2010, so they have had more than enough time to perfect their sound. Condition Critical have a heavy handed no bs approach where the fast parts are faster, the slow parts cave in craniums and the entire affair bears all the hallmarks of the most (good friendly) violent (fun) pioneers of the style.
We get pummeled with 9 songs here that were mixed and mastered by Mike Low. The guitar tones are heavy with that trebly bite and mid-range skronk that would feel at home on any of the new wave of American thrash records yet somehow the slightly lower gain settings here make it seem more articulate, and all the dynamics can be heard loud and clear. Elsewhere the drums are mixed pristinely and the bass (yeah, this is a thrash record you can hear it on, unlike that ONE classic album...) has that fantastic slightly distorted piano string ping of D.D. Verni, Danny Lilker and Frank Bello. Raw and face punching production aside, these songs flat out rip.
Breakneck opener “Wretched Aggression” bludgeons us with near death metal speed at its onset and seriously, contains one of the better lead guitar breaks within the genre’s recent memory before segueing into a slow double bass breakdown that would have Overkill taking notes. This one just grinds you into dust with its outro. Stellar. Vocalist/guitarist Ryan Taylor employs the Tony Forresta by way of Billy Milano vocal technique, peppering in some death growls elsewhere and it all works in a beautiful moshy effect. Later, “Cranial Dissolution” has a mid-tempo lead break into a techy drum and guitar push pull that is mind bending as much as it is satisfying. For my money though, it doesn't get any better here than the Wrathchild America on steroids gallops of “Cryonic Intestinal Preservation”. Who am I kidding?! The entire record is devastating and catchy in a way that I haven't heard in this motif in a long while. Seasoned touring all over America, Europe and Russia have sharpened Condition Critical's attack to razor like precision and is their best outing yet. Actually, this could very well be their career defining moment. If you dig your thrash sharing lineage with Demolition Hammer, Havok, Morbid Saint and giving subtle nods to heavier fare like early Obituary and Pestilence, then lace up your high tops and stage dive into this pit. I know the “thrash revival” has gotten somewhat stale, but sometimes an album comes along that breathes new life into it. Degeneration Chamber IS that album. Simply brilliant.
~TB