Expulsion
Nightmare Future
(Relapse Records)
Seven songs and 14 minutes later, Expulsion’s Nightmare Future is a frenetic journey into an old-school world of grind, punk, and crust. Hang on tight though, it’s a hell of a roller coaster ride. Expulsion, although a new band, are comprised of the following scene veterans: Matt Olivo (Repulsion), Matt Harvey (Exhumed, Gruesome), Danny Walker (Drums; Intronaut, Exhumed, Phobia), and Menno Verbaten (Lightning Swords of Death). Their collective pedigree in the diverse world of punk and metal is enough to whet the appetite of any extreme music fan. Question, is, does Nightmare Future deliver the goods? The simple answer is: they do it with a vengeance.
If you listen closely, you can hear echoes of the Electro Hippies, Napalm Death, Extreme Noise Terror, Terrorizer, even modern peers like Meth Leppard, Nails and Wartorn, rolling through each song. The mood of the record is bleak and angry. Expulsion are looking at the world around them through a medium of seven songs and asking the question: why are we, humanity, such a train wreck?
Imagine a circuit where anger, aggression and hostility surge into a capacitor that’s reached its max and must discharge energy or explode. That’s where the music is on this record and that’s the mayhem Expulsion have crafted so well here. The title track is the longest song on the record, clocking in at 2:41 and it, like the other songs, is short expressions of disgust and repulsion that hit you like a baseball hat to the head.
This record encapsulates the mood and spirit of old school grind, punk and crust to a tee, which you’d expect nothing less from this veteran lineup. Nightmare Future embodies the phrase Exodus made famous nearly 30 years ago still relevant now: “…Throw your elbows in some friendly, violent fun…”
