22. Unsane—Occupational Hazard (1998)
There are some people in this world who just can't handle bad news. When the announcement is made that everyone on Earth is doomed, these are the people who are going to snap, chug a gallon of whiskey and go for a joyride downtown, randomly firing a machine gun out the window of the car as they swerve all over the the sidewalk at ninety miles an hour. This album is for them.
Unsane have made a career out of making music that sounds like distilled violence, and this album is that in it's purest form. Sure there are heavier bands out there—noisier bands, faster bands, whatever—but there's something about Unsane that just makes them sound so… aggressive. It could be the factory-like pounding of the drums. It could be the locomotive chugging of the bass. It could be the circular saw grinding of the guitar. But I'm pretty sure it's Chris Spencer's voice that's the most essential part of the equation. His barked, distorted vocals are the perfect thing for this music and I cannot imagine a single way in which they could be improved, their throat-ripping intensity sounds like it's coming straight from the very heart of anger.
Violence might make for a poor solution to the inequities of an existence tied to a dying planet, but for 38 minutes
Occupational Hazard somehow manages to make the case in it's favor. For a moment it makes you wonder, in a universe capable of snuffing out so much life in such an arbitrary way, maybe violence is simply the most natural expression of the state of things.