Casual Nausea - Demons
A month and dozens of plays after I first heard it, it just keeps getting better.
Hailing from Ipswich - but don’t hold that against them, Norwich folk, they’re lovely people! - Casual Nausea are seriously fearsome live, all Crass anger and energy. Much as I love ’em on stage, I wasn’t expecting it to translate into much in the studio. Oh, I was so wrong.
There’s the expected crustpunk and hardcore influences but this exceeds those limitations. Live favourites Vote, DIY or Die and Empty Rewardsdeliver the rush of the stage experience but this is a fun, exciting, inventive take on punk, with an unexpected melodic sensibility. I was doubtful when the TNSrecords blurb talked about the Restarts meeting (Pavlis faves) Gogol Bordello but it is bang on. Terminator is mad punk-polka and it is brilliant. Some may say swearing is neither big nor clever but the chorus of Fuck Up shows just how cathartic and invigorating a damned good cuss can be. In an alternative reality, the anthemic, joyous shoutalong of the title track would be a smash hit. Blood In The Oil takes a trip into dubby ska territory to great effect.
This won’t appeal to the mainstream but I hope those that fall for it will be smitten. A month and dozens of plays after I first heard it, it just keeps getting better.
9/10
