Review by Michael on July 4, 2025.

Never change a winning team is an often used sagacity, at least here in Germany. And quite often this has failed very badly. But that's exactly what Floridian deathers Inhuman Condition have obviously promised to themselves. Starting with the cover which was once again created by Dan Goldsworthy where the band gets tortured by their cover mascot, the "Rat God" up to the music which hasn't changed too much really since the guys founded the band back in 2021.

Just let me go back to that time if you aren't trusted with the band. Maybe you know that "Inhuman Condition" once was a pretty cool old-school EP by Massacre in 1992 (and in my opinion together with the legendary debut "From Beyond" the only good release by the band). Together with Kam Lee, Taylor Nordberg and Jeramie Kling were members in Massacre in 2019/20 until the guys were thrown out and had the idea to found their own Massacre band (with material originally written for the upcoming Massacre album and with original founding member Terry Butler on board). So Inhuman Condition was spawned and since then the guys release quite regularly very entertaining groovy death metal albums. Apart from the 1000 other bands the guys are involved in. Together with their cover creator they are obviously some of the busiest guys in the scene, I guess.

And so it isn't a big surprise what Inhuman Condition is offering to the fans on "Mind Trap" (which is already their third full-length album). Most of the songs blow you away in some catchy mid-tempo grooves and this all sounds much more like some typical 90s Floridian death metal than most of the still active bands that released albums during the last years.

But there are also some tracks that differ a little bit from the rest. "Science Of Discontent" is a more dissonant track (not like Deathspell Omega or Portal) but in some riffs this is quite obvious that the guys want to break out of the standard scheme. Apart from that, they have put in some really cool breaks and twists here and with the deep growls and the 90s-style guitars this is a very nice old-school track. "Face For Later" is the fastest track that grooves as hell too. This one is galloping through the speakers like a warhorse through the enemy lines.

But all the nine tracks are kept quite in the same style (everything else would be a big surprise and I guess for that are the other bands the guys are involved in fine for) but never start to get boring. This is a really solid work of old-school death metal.

Maybe the biggest difference to the previous releases is that Jeramie is using his voice in a much more diverse way. He doesn't use it in a more or less one-dimensional way anymore but tries to stress out his words and emphasizes the vocals much more than before.

Inhuman Condition once more have written a very good album that is perfect for a groovy beer (Erdinger alcohol-free) session at the pool. It is well-produced and there aren't any flaws to be found. Maybe you can criticize that it's too stereotypical but when I listen to old-school death metal, I really don't want any operas or experiments. Never change a winning team has succeeded this time for sure!

Rating: 8 out of 10