On February 6, Unsane’s Relapse Records debut “Occupational Hazard” comes back in a newly remastered reissue via Lamb Unlimited, with extra material that pulls the curtain back on how that record was built—and what it costs to drag it back onto a stage in 2026.
This is the first-ever reissue since the original January 1998 release, expanded with “No Soul” (originally a vinyl-only single on Frank Kozik’s now-defunct Man’s Ruin Records) and the six-song live-in-the-studio sessions cut at AmRep Studios in Minneapolis. Those AmRep recordings are listed as bonus material—“Commited,” “Over Me,” “Sick,” “Smells Like Rain,” “Lead,” and “Understand”—and the reissue package is positioned as a full-circle look at that era.
There’s one wrinkle worth stating without dressing it up: the materials give two different release dates for the reissue—February 6, and also Friday, February 4, 2026—so the rollout, as provided, lands somewhere in that early-February window.
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“Occupational Hazard” itself sits where abrasive noise rock leans into punk, metal, and industrial pressure. The official note points to “aggressively distorted guitars, driving basslines, and pounding drums” as the core language here—less about nuance, more about impact. But the way Chris Spencer describes the writing period isn’t “we survived it,” it’s closer to “we had our hands on the wheel.”
“The writing process for Occupational Hazard was great. I think the one real defining factor to this very creatively rewarding period of time in our career was that we knew what we were doing in terms of songwriting, and we were able to take our time while constantly playing.”
That “constantly playing” part isn’t a metaphor. Spencer ties the record’s pacing directly to the band’s touring reality at the time. “When we recorded this album, we were doing a lot of touring, so the album was done at a very break neck pace.”
And then he widens the lens: “Yeah, this was around the time that we were doing over 300 shows a year for about four years. We were in really good shape when that record was made. The writing aspect of the record was great as we had tons of time and were very relaxed about the whole process. We also knew that we would be hitting the road right after it was done and that we were writing a record that would be toured on for a long time.”
The sessions behind the album are mapped out in the release text like a route across cities and rooms. First came that six-song demo session at AmRep Studios in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After that, the band moved to Excello Studios in Brooklyn, New York, tracking the album with engineer Billy Anderson. Then the mix went to producer David Sardy (also noted as Barkmarket’s guitarist). Spencer’s explanation for bringing Sardy in is practical and specific—taste, fit, and access.
“I’ve always liked what he did with his own band and in the studio, and I thought that it would work well for what we were doing. Dave also had access to a really good studio in Midtown Manhattan, so we decided to take advantage of his great production work and that space.”
The band’s label situation at the time mattered too, and Spencer connects it directly to how they were thinking about the next few years. “We had been offered a three-record deal with Relapse Records and figured that would be the best thing to do, considering we wanted to tour constantly.”
That plan got violently interrupted. The materials state that shortly before the original release—during a European press tour—Spencer was attacked in Vienna, Austria, “left for dead,” and later returned to touring after emergency surgery. In the Q&A, he fills in the part that reads like the opposite of a comeback narrative: not triumphant, just stubborn, painful logistics.
“Unfortunately, when I was in Europe doing press for the record, I was jumped in Vienna and ended up with internal bleeding. I had full exploratory surgery to fix the problem, so during the touring that followed this I was in really bad physical shape. I had the staples taken out from the surgery two weeks before touring started and then proceeded to tour for 10 months straight as the injury healed. It was a real test of will.”
In 2026, the reissue isn’t being treated as nostalgia. The record still lines up with the current band, and Spencer sounds almost relieved that time has changed the physical math. “I’ve been playing through the record a lot recently and it definitely lines up with the way things are now with the band. We’ve been doing a few songs from this record in the touring we’ve done recently, so we’re very familiar with the material from this era… It’s going to be fun to play the whole thing front to back.”
For years, they didn’t play “Occupational Hazard” straight through—not as a principled refusal, just because the setlists were crowded.
“It wasn’t really a conscious thing. We had a lot of other songs to play from the previous records so we wanted to get everything in and just do select tracks. Getting the opportunity to play this whole record is going to be challenging but fun.”
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The reissue campaign is welded to that live moment: a one-time-only special performance at Roadburn Festival in April 2026, where the band is set to play the album in full, plus a full EU/UK headline run from March 13 to April 19, 2026. Spencer doesn’t romanticize the idea of “older songs,” either—he frames the catalog as time-stamped writing, and the live show as the current body meeting the old tempo.
“The way I’ve written music from the beginning is done to reflect a certain time and situation I was dealing with in life. I love what we do and can’t wait to get out there and play this record.”
When asked what’s changed most on stage since the ’90s, he answers with the bluntest possible metric: not being broken. “Given the physical adversity of the time, it’s going to be great to revisit this record and play the entire thing live. I am in much better physical shape than I was then and look forward to getting to play this record without being in excruciating pain while doing it.”
And when it comes to what matters on this run—control, volume, tension, or simply surviving—he leans into the pace of the record itself. “I think that getting to play this in good physical condition will make it an amazing, cathartic experience. The record has a great physically demanding pace that’s going to be fun to play every night. i’m really looking forward to it…”
He circles back to that point again, less as a slogan than as a reality check: “As I said before, I am in much better shape now to be performing this and this shit is really fun to play..”
The audio side is getting the same long-view treatment. The entire album has been newly remastered by longtime Unsane collaborator and engineer Andrew Schneider. All formats include “No Soul,” and the AmRep demo session is included in the digital download format, also set to be available for streaming and download.
The EU/UK tour schedule tied to the campaign runs as follows:
13.03.2026 Hamburg, DE — Molotow
14.03.2026 Malmö, SE — Plan B
15.03.2026 Jonkoping, SE — Hush Hush Club
16.03.2026 Stockholm, SE — HUS7
17.03.2026 Oslo, NO — Vaterland
18.03.2026 Göteborg, SE — Monument
19.03.2026 Aarhus, DK — Phono
20.03.2026 Hannover, DE — Cafe Glocksee
21.03.2026 Wroclaw, PL — Liverpool
22.03.2026 Warsaw, PL — Voodoo
24.03.2026 Plzen, CZ — Divadlo Pod Lampou
25.03.2026 Wien, AT — Arena
26.03.2026 Zagreb, HR — Mocvara
27.03.2026 Ljubljana, SI — Channel Zero
28.03.2026 Bologna, IT — Freakout
29.03.2026 Martigny, CH — Sunset Bar
31.03.2026 Strasbourg, FR — La Grenze
01.04.2026 Belfort, FR — La Poudriere
02.04.2026 Montpellier, FR — L’Antirouille
03.04.2026 Nantes, FR — Cold Crash
04.04.2026 Paris, FR — Petit Bain
07.04.2026 Bristol, UK — Exchange
08.04.2026 Oxford, Uk — The Bullingdon
09.04.2026 Leeds, UK — Brudenell Social Club
10.04.2026 Dublin, IE — Lost Lane
11.04.2026 Glasgow, UK — Nice N Sleazy
12.04.2026 Preston, UK — The Continental
13.04.2026 London, UK — New Cross Inn
14.04.2026 Dunkerque, FR — Les 4Ecluses
15.04.2026 Brussels, BE — Magasin 4
16.04.2026 Tilburg, NL — Roadburn Festival
17.04.2026 Esslingen, DE — KOMMA
18.04.2026 Berlin, DE — Maschinenhaus
19.04.2026 Prague, CZ — Meet Factory
