Review by Felix on October 3, 2023.

The albums of Toxic Holocaust are like a one night stand. They make fun and it's a good experience, but they do not have a long lasting effect and they fail to enrich your life on the long run. "Chemistry of Consciousness" does not mark an exception. It delivers incendary riffs in abundance, it is more metal punk than other bands like Warfare ever were and friends of complexity or compromises will not find a single track to enjoy. Toxic Holocaust do not play simple songs. To express it this way would be a euphemism. The pieces are totally primitive. "Rat Eater", equipped with the "excessive" duration of 3:43 minutes, has a kind of mid-paced intro, but the remaining songs put the emphasis on speed. Radioactive radiation in musical form - that's what one gets when listening to this document of iron-fisted fury. It's a kind of metal orgasm and here we've come full circle. Sad but true, we all know that orgasms usually do not last very long - regardless of the question whether or not it is a one night stand.

As a logical consequence, the album clocks in at 28 minutes and this duration does not leave much room for experiments. Even little deviations are not in sight. Each and every track is reduced to the essentials. The songs run down the road of thermonuclear devastation. Joel Grind, true to his pseudonym, grinds everything that stands in his way. The man with the doglike haircut worships his own song formula and the album does not indicate that he will ever modify it. Therefore, everybody knows what sound Toxic Holocaust stand for and indeed, you get exactly what you expect. The listener will not find any depth or any form of interwoven structure here, but the tracks deliver eleven slaps in the face.

The crunchy guitars dominate the sound of this adequately produced work. No doubt, the full-length does not lack pressure and force. It does not spread the aura of the underground, but it is not at risk to be blamed for sterility as well and one thing is for sure: the impact of the compositions is bolstered by this aggressive mix. Sometimes I wish that the songs would have a little bit more substance. A surprising break would also be nice every now and then, but I also like the radical philosophy of the band and therefore I enjoy the album. Especially highlights such as "Out of the Fire" with its fantastic opening riff, the flattening "Rat Eater" or the hyperfast "Salvation Is Waiting" with its restlessly flickering guitars deliver an appropriate portion of insanity. Anyway, there are no great quality differences between the single songs and the album is simply too short to think about pressing the skip button.

Needless to say that this record is highly recommended for fans of Genesis, Queen, Rush or Sieges Even.

Rating: 7.4 out of 10