Occupational Hazard

Occupational Hazard Artist: Unsane
Label: Relapse
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 781676697625
EAN: 0781676697625
ASIN: B00000113E


Release Date: 1998-01-27

Occupational Hazard


Related Categories:

General General
Categories | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Hardcore Hardcore
Categories | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Post Hardcore Post Hardcore
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General General
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Indie Rock Indie Rock
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Noise Noise
Categories | Rock | Alternative Styles | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
General General
Categories | Rock | Styles | Music
General General
Categories | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music
Hardcore Hardcore
Categories | Hardcore & Punk | Alternative Rock | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Tracks:

  1. Committed
  2. This Plan
  3. Over Me
  4. Take In The Stray
  5. Stop
  6. Wait To Lose
  7. Sick
  8. Hazmat
  9. Smells Like Rain
  10. Lead
  11. Humidifier
  12. Scam
  13. Understand

Similar Items:

  1. Blood Run
  2. Total Destruction
  3. Scattered, Smothered & Covered
  4. Lambhouse: The Collection 1991-1998
  5. Singles 89-92

Amazon.com

Where most of their peers try awfully hard to create the illusion of bad juju, New York's Unsane seem to be able to conjure the real thing at will. Aside from an ominous string of personal problems--culminating in singer/guitarist Chris Spencer's near-death experience in a European fistfight on tour to promote this album--Unsane cultivates a bleak industrial thrash sound steeped in undifferentiated antagonism. Perhaps a bit slower and more measured than some of their peers, Unsane move forward more like a bulldozer than an out-of-control funny-car. You won't find much subtext in astringent bashers like "Sick," "Lead," and "Scam," but then again, when real life makes bands like Ministry seem like easy listening, you don't really need any. <I>--David Sprague</I>

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Badass.......2005-05-08

Similar to Helmet and the Jesus Lizard, Unsane are a good example of why the early 90's rocked so much. Shame the Korn-addicts didn't check this out when it was released.

5 out of 5 stars GET THIS!!!.......2004-05-13

I picked this album up for $5.00. Even for three times that price, it would have still have been a deal. This has to be the best album I have gotten in at least the last 5 months.
Do your eardrums a favor, and get this album!!!

4 out of 5 stars Fantastic!.......2004-04-01

Unsane, Occupational Hazard (Relapse, 1998)

Insert witty comments about lyrics here. The only places I could find them listed were ad- and spyware-infested commercial sites. And without a sheet I can't understand what Chris is on about 90% of the time. Ah, well.

It amazes me that a band like Unsane could have still been around in the metal scene that was 1998. I mean, let's face it, metal was dominated by that nu-muck spewed by Korn and its ripoffs, and "punk" had come to mean The Offspring and Blink182. Even Ministry had become relatively unlistenable a few years before. What was a purveyor of quality metal to do?

I don't know, but they did it. Occupational Hazard is straight-up sludge from the bottom of the East River. This is the album [Ministry's] Filth Pig wanted to be and couldn't become. Slow, crunchy guitar, tortured vocals, and a rhythm section capable of hurting you without even being in the same room. Sonically, they bear resemblances to mid-era Jesus Lizard (think Liar here) with the speed turned down, or early Noisegate without the deep ambiance. Awesome. ****

5 out of 5 stars 4.5 stars.......2004-02-11

My exposure to Unsane's past efforts has been notably limited, but I have heard enough to realize that their latest effort is far more structured than work of old. However, they've hardly sold out to trendy, late-90s metal cliches, and though Unsane are more appropriately punk than metal, "Occupational Hazard" finds them exploring the progressive hardcore Fugazi is famous for. This is a genre I am only marginally familiar with, but I feel safe in saying that with this record Unsane have delivered what has to be the most professional noise rock record to date. There is just enough distortion to give the band a menacing sound but without muffling the underlying rhythms. The drums in particular are well-produced and superbly played for this genre (courtesy of Vinny Signorelli), at times even approaching a jazz-like sophistication. The guitars can sound like anyone from Reverend Horton Heat to Kim Thayil (of Soundgarden) depending on the song. Bottom line is the grooves on this album just have far more swing and sense of movement than the typical hardcore sound today, as represented by all those Sick Of It All clones with the monotonous sore throat vocals and guitarists who treat the upper three strings on their guitar like the Bermuda Triangle. Relapse have staked a major coup in signing Unsane at this stage of their development.

NOTE: This review was written in 1997/98 and to the best of my knowledge Unsane have long since broken up.

4 out of 5 stars

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At Last: The Duets Album ~ Kenny G

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The Spirit of Jazz ~ Various Artists

Greatest Hits ~ Glenn Miller

12th World Youth Day-Paris 1997 ~ Various Artists

Mama Africa l'Ame du Ghana ~ Lizzy Hammond

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