Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the first album from the New York thrashers ¨Nuclear Assault¨. This album is called ¨Game Over¨, this album is cinsidered to be one of the bands most successful albums along with their second album ¨Survive¨, though I don't agree with that statement. The album contains quite healthy trash-metal, the pace is fast and frantic in some of the songs, there are some short filler songs and some slower songs as well. The vocals on this album must be one of metals most 'annoying' vocals I have heard, I really don't like to say that but that is what I feel about these vocals. The lyrics in this album are a bit political, sometimes a bit satanic and they also include lyrics about the nuclear areas such as nuclear war and stuff that comes along.
The crew in this album was then and still are John Connelly (vocals/guitars), Anthony Bramante (guitars), Danny Lilker (bass) and Glenn Evans (drums). Though Bramante has left the band but the other three members are still with us today and continue to deliver enjoyable thrash albums.
We take a closer look at the front man John Connelly, this man most have one of the oddest vocals in the thrash-metal genre, the vocals today are though very good compared to the this. John's singing voice is best described as yell, a bit sharp and quite strained I would say, sometimes you actually get a strange feeling in your throat when you listen to his vocals to be honest, I do though. But the good thing about Connelly's vocals is that he makes the unique atmosphere that surrounds the band. John is also a guitar player, I can't admit that he does a wonderful performance on this album though, the guitar sound sounds very flat and 'cheap'. The riffing and shredding in this album is yet quite heavy, energetic and fast. The rhythm sections are pretty steady but the lack of heaviness in the guitars makes the material a bit flat and boring. John Connelly's performance as a vocalist will be a 3.5/5 and his guitar playing should also get a 3.5/5.
We move on and take a look at Anthony Bramante, the guitarist that gave ¨Nuclear Assault's¨ thrashy sound because of his more metal directed guitar playing. Bramante does also a pretty decent work here, the only thing he does not do so good is the soloing. The guitar solos sounds like amateur stuff, some solos just have some squeaky high-pitched notes but most of the times the solos are very chaotic and disoriented to my ears. Well he handles a guitar way more better than I can but I know when I hear something good. Anthony Bramante gets an uncertain 4/5 though.
And here we have the bassist and ex-member of ¨Anthrax¨ Danny Lilker. Danny is one of the founding fathers to this band and he does a very good job on this album. His bass is loud and clear, he keeps up in the rhythm sections and he also makes a few moments alone in some songs, nothing special though, most of the times he does some bass intros to the filler songs and some filler sections here and there. But even Danny's bass sounds a bit flat and poor, the bass has a cranky sound, there is not much heaviness and it sounds a bit boring with time. But Danny does a good job as I said and I would give him a strong 4/5.
And now to the last member, Glen Evans is responsible for the drums. I guess he is the only memeber that makes the greatest effort in this album. There are songs with great fast classic thrash drumming, machine-gun in the filler songs and there are also slower drum patterns in the material. There is nothing high-tech with the drumming though, Glenn pounds on like most metal drummers and stays to the basics. Glenn's performance will get a 4.5/5 from me.
The songs in this album had a good variation, the songs didn't have the same song structure and that was more enjoying. Some of the fastest and catchiest songs would be ¨Cold Steel¨, ¨Radiation Sickness¨, ¨Betrayal¨ and ¨Nuclear War¨. The songs that were a bit slower would be ¨Brain Death¨ and ¨Sin¨ maybe. The most boring songs were the filler songs, some people would enjoy them but I hated them when I first heard them, the songs are named as ¨Hang The Rope¨, ¨My America¨ and ¨Mr. Softee Theme¨. There was some songs that grabbed my interest pretty quick and there were also songs that I wish I will never need to hear again. The opening track by the way is an instrumental song but it is nothing special though, it starts off slow and it just gets faster in its pace.
Done, hope this was enough and I hope it was to any help. I didn't enjoyed this album so much, I like the band but their earlier stuff was not that great as I have read about. The things that bugged me was the filler songs, the flat and kind of dull overall sound and some the vocals. I would recommend this to thrash-metal fans becuase I think this album would suit them more, I'm pretty sure that most people would reject this album pretty quick when they have started to listen to it. I think that this album was just as exciting as a new hamburger at McDonald's.
PROS
+ Unique vocals
+ Good bass frequence
+ Pretty good variation of the material
CONS
- The overall sound feels pretty flat and dull
- The solos are not any high-lights
- The vocals would and will annoy people
RECOMMENDED TRACKS
-- Brain Death
-- Nuclear War
-- Cold Steel
-- After The Holocaust
The overall album rating will be: 3/5
