If you were prowling the city’s heavy-music underground in the 2010s, odds are good that some of your current tinnitus was caused by Ad Nauseum. They were one of the most stentorian young sludge bands in Orlando playing some of most deafening shows around. This decade, however, they’ve been so silent as to be widely considered defunct. That’s why their recent surprise drop on Bandcamp — their first in nearly eight years — is a legit bombshell.
Before everyone gets carried away, though, Ad Nauseum is not back, exactly. While the two-track 2017 is a brand-new release, the songs are actually from the year in the name. These are pivotal tracks that capture the band’s latest sound, a phase that came about after some key internal revamping of duties and inspirations. This material was the most updated document of Ad Nauseum to ever exist. And then it was lost.
But in a bolt of freak luck, the recordings turned up years later right under their noses. “This might sound like something from Spinal Tap , but while cleaning out my inbox recently, I simply came across the tracks,” says guitarist-vocalist Glenn R. “They had been there all along but buried in nearly seven years of emails. So I said ‘fuck it’ once I confirmed these were in fact the tracks that sounded as good as I remembered, and I quickly threw together an album cover and uploaded it all to Bandcamp last night [Sept. 24] without a second thought.”