Nausea

Nausea from New York City stood apart long before the grindcore surge of the 1990s, unleashing an unrelenting, politically incendiary assault whose volume and vehemence later bands never matched. The group coalesced in 1987 inside Lower East Side squats, founded by bassist John John Jesse, and its blend of music and words would shape anarcho-crust ensembles across the globe. Victor Venom, formerly the bassist of Reagan Youth, joined on guitar, while an English punk identified only as Neil handled vocals. Amy Miret, wife of Agnostic Front singer Roger Miret, came aboard as second vocalist; after cycling through several drummers the lineup stabilized with Roy Mayorga. Their material confronted vivisection, class struggle, and the gentrification displacing residents of the Lower East Side, and the band regularly staged benefit concerts for those issues. Neil exited in 1989 to launch Jesus Crust and the Tribal War Records label, whereupon Al Long of Minneapolis’s Misery assumed vocal duties. Their sole full-length, Extinction, arrived the following year and found favor among anarchist punks everywhere, notwithstanding its closer resemblance to Slayer than to Crass. After overseas tours and scattered compilation tracks, the band cut the Cybergod EP, during which Amy Miret departed. One further EP was completed before Nausea disbanded in 1992.