We travel back in time when ¨Nuclear Assault¨ was on the run, they are known to mix speedy thrash with influences from the hardcore-genre. Another thing that was pretty unique fro this band was the yell and quite high-pitched vocals from John Connelly (vocals and guitars). After three releases (including a short EP) ¨Nuclear Assault¨ released this album called ¨Handle With Care¨ in 1989, an album that has been considered to be one of their better albums also along with ¨Game Over¨ and ¨Survive¨. The album had the same musical sound as the previous albums except for a few small details, the riffing, the drums and the vocals was pretty much improved but to 'regular' people this would sound exactly like their previous work.
The crew for the album at the time were and some of the still are John Connelly (vocals and guitars), Anthony Bramante (guitars), Danny Lilker (bass) and Glenn Evans (drums). Connelly and his special vocals, many bands were influenced or inspired by the hardcore but many of the bands didn't let the hardcore sound ring out as much but ¨Nuclear Assault¨ did. Connelly's vocals is desrcibed as quite yell and that would be it, he sings though pretty high at some moments but most of the time he sings his 'normal' style. As a guitarist he is pretty good, the rhythm sections are good and solid but the 'wall of sound' is not so heavy as it would be in my opinion. Anthony Bramante was the guitarist that made the band get into more thrashier areas, the riffing is very intense, sometimes simple and sometimes a bit more complexive. The guitar soloing is most of the time chaotic, fast and none-melodic. Danny Lilker on the bass, a bass player with talent that has been playing and plays in bands like ¨Brutal Truth¨, ¨Anthrax¨ and ¨Holy Moses¨ for example. Danny's bass on most of their records is very audiable which is a very good thing, it makes the songs more stabile and interesting. Glenn Evans is pounding on the drums, a very good drummer, he doesn't show so much skill in this album but there is some highlight drumming in a few songs here though.
The songs in this album is basically straight thrash/speed-metal, some songs are very catchy and some songs are really annoying and here is a short song description on each song and I hope this section will give you some guidance:
¨New Song¨ - Catchy intro riffs, classic thrash based verse, calm chorus, fast tempo, skilled and chaotic solo, great headbanging song.
¨Critical Mass¨ - Very catchy main riffing, good song pattern, fast but easy-digested tempo, low annoying factor on the vocals.
¨Inherited Hell¨ - High-picthed guitars as intro, fast but yet simple shredding, annoying vocals, good and half-melodic solos, great headbang section after two minutes including great drum work.
¨Surgery¨ - Slow intro but yet a bit catchy, more great drum work, a bit sluggish riffing, a small bass filling section, a quite medium song.
¨Emergency¨ - Slow intro with wierd guitars, intenvise riffing and drumming, annoying vocals, quite melodic guitar solo.
¨Funky Noise¨ - Filler song, boring, slow drums, screaming guitars and stupid bass lines, 50 seconds of wasted time.
¨F# (wake up)¨ - Fast intro, intensive pace, rushed verse, wierd and half-catchy riffs, great guitar solo section, good drum patterns.
¨When Freedom Dies¨ - 'Falling' riffs as intro, catchy riffs, good tempo, endurable song pattern, good drumming, boring and calm sectiond with slow solos.
¨Search & Seizure¨ - Fast and catchy intro riffs, awesome and rhythmic drum work, great song pattern with, some of the best vocals, fast tempo, more chaotic soloing, great song.
¨Torture Tactics¨ - Calm song but yet fast tempo, catchy shredding, meduim drum speed, quite strong vocals, easy-digested song.
¨Mother's Day¨ - Another stupid filler song, similar to grindcore-songs but with no extreme elements, ultra-fast noise, 32 seconds of more wasted time.
¨Trail Of Tears¨ - Quite catchy intro riffs, pretty catchy song pattern, decent vocals compared to previous tracks, has also calm solo sections which drags the song down.
There you have it, I don't know how you thought about this review, but if it was to any help or if was a bad review just let me know so I know if I will stop or continue to use this kind of reviews. I thought that this album was pretty good, after listening to their earlier material I thought that this album was the best of the bunch. The riffing was more variating and catchier, the drum work was improved and the bass was flowing on very good. The vocals by the way was still not as great as I thought it would be, they sound a little bit improved but they would still bug people I guess. Its a matter of 'love or hate'-vocals basically. I would recommend this album to thrash-metal fans because the music seems to be more directed towards thrash, people who like 'odd' metal-vocals should check this out too.
PROS
+ The instruments has been improved
+ All instruments are loud and clear
+ The thrash-formula is also quite improved when it comes to riffing and drumming
+ The unique vocals from John Connelly
CONS
- All songs appears to have more treble than bass, which makes the songs feel flat
- The vocals would and will annoy people who listens to the bands early material
RECOMMENDED TRACKS
-- New Song
-- Critical Mass
-- Search & Seizure
-- When Freedom Dies
The overall album rating will be: 4/5
