EP Review: Inhuman Condition - Panic Prayer
Reviewed by Gareth Pugh
Inhuman Condition was born from the discarded remnants of an attempted revival of legendary death metal band Massacre, and named after said band’s 1992 EP, a band not unfamiliar to drama, when Massacre was going through another of its numerous lineup changes and drummer/vocalist Jeramie Kling, and guitarist Taylor Nordberg were was unceremoniously fired, they decided to go it alone and took the songs that they had penned for a follow up to Massacre's 2014’s underwhelming ‘Back from Beyond’ album. After showing him the songs, they hooked up with death metal veteran and ex-Massacre bassist, Terry Butler (Obituary, Left to Die, ex-Death, ex Six Feet Under, etc.), and released the critically acclaimed ‘Rat°God’ album in 2021 and a mere one year later released follow up sophomore album ‘Fearsick’.
Now just two years after the debut, they are about to release a new EP ‘Panic Prayer’, which features three new original songs, a cover version of the Blue Öyster Cult’s ‘Godzilla’ and four live tracks, two from each album. If you’ve never heard Inhuman Condition before, they are effectively Massacre Mk II, from the band logo to the uniquely garish, and bright cover art by Dan Goldsworthy, to the late 80’s Florida death metal production, the band does what it says on the tin.
This is brutal, old school death metal, with no real frills, the three originals ‘Civilized Holocaust’, ‘Final Credits’ and the title-track all feature a mixture of fast, slow chunky riffing, with plenty of palm-muting and tremolo type riffs, and a mixture of melodic and divebomb leads and solos with judicious use of the whammy bar. The guitar sound is suitably heavy with a nice dirty crunch, the bass provides that essential low-end punch, while Jeramie’s vocals are suitably sick, deathly and clear, and certainly adequate, but saying that, not quite of the level of some of his peers.
‘Godzilla’ is probably the most interesting track here; the band have done a great job turning this late 70’s rocker into a full-on death metal monster (pun very much intended!). The EP finishes with some good live versions of some of the best songs from ‘Rat°God’ and ‘Fearsick’, the production sounds very heavy, Simon McKay plays drums here so Jeramie can concentrate on his vocals, the double blast of ‘The Mold Testament’ and ‘Recycled Hate’ works well, but it’s ‘Euphoriphobia’ and ‘The Neck Step’ which are the real stars, two crushingly heavy tracks, designed to get the pit whirling.
Overall, this is an EP that is a real step back in time, and although an entertaining listen I ultimately get the impression it’s not exactly essential, unless that is you love albums such as ‘Scream Bloody Gore’, ‘Slowly We Rot’, and most notably ‘From Beyond’, if that’s the case, you will absolutely love this EP.
