New York's own hardcore thrashers,
Nuclear Assault, won't give up without a fight. Created by the former
Anthrax bassist
Danny Lilker after his departure, they are still making their music cling a little here and there in the great halls of thrash-metal.
Nuclear Assault may be not your favourite thrash-metal band but they are definitely one of the more unique bands in the genre. Mixing thrash-metal with some hardcore influences they became a quite noticeable band, and
Nuclear Assault could be called in my opinion somewhat of an off-shot
Anthrax copy and I have my reasons. This band became noticeable because of
John Connelly's very original yell and somewhat whiney vocals which were also quite powerful at some moments, and that's probably the biggest unique feature this band has.
Nuclear Assault were quite similar to
Anthrax in almost every aspect except that
Anthrax were more like a cutting final product while
Nuclear Assault were more like a prototype still under development but there was still things that could link those two bands together. Both bands had lyrics which were more focused on politics, events that were happening at the present time and humorous stuff rather than hate, violence and death and stuff like that.
Nuclear Assault were also a band that could deliver blistering and technical music, though there music sometimes wasn't as catchy and heavy as other thrash-metal bands already had tons of more or less (think
Slayer or
Metallica). Technical guitar solos, highly intensive guitars, a standout bass, a completely all round drummer and a singer unmatched has created some really unique thrash-metal which will leave a respectable mark in metal history.
Alive Again is the band's second live album, and is an album that pretty much sums up the whole perspective regarding
Nuclear Assault's music. This record has songs from their first album called
Game Over and all the way to
Handle With Care but that's where it stops. Here you have songs that don't sounds similar to each other, as some songs are more intensive than others, and some are more technical, catchier, heavier etc.
Rise From The Ashes,
Brainwashed,
Critical Mass,
Trail Of Tears and
New Song are some songs that I think have the catchiest riffs and also have the best tempos plus they are a bit heavier than the rest.
Radiation Sickness,
Butt F*ck,
Sin and
F# are some songs that I feel have some of the less catchy riffs, but these songs are also a bit more intense.
Hang The Rope is probably the fastest and also the shortest song, if you want to call it a song. It gives the album a nice touch which creates a classic
Nuclear Assault atmosphere because of the ultra fast tempo and short length. I have lots of my personal favourites here and I also think that there are quite many classic songs here from the band, but there are a few good and bad things that I will mention before I end this review.
Great live album in my opinion but unfortunately not the best, but I will start with the good stuff first. The first thing that struck me about this album was that it had many classic songs and songs that I personally like, and it was great to hear that the band still sounded unique and they pulled off the songs better than I thought they were able to do. Second good thing: even if
John's vocals might have changed a bit he still manages to keep the songs powerful and strong, as songs like
F# and
Butt F*ck sounded very good just because of the vocals, and he also plays a guitar which would make things quite difficult but he really does a great performance. But after the effect of those two things I just mentioned, the bad began to shine through. First I thought that there was a great number of songs and a good selection of songs, but then I noticed that there were absolutely no songs from their two albums called
Out Of Order and
Something Wicked. If I could I would easily replace some from this record with songs like
Fashion Junkie and
Save The Planet from
Out Of Order and
Chaos and
Poetic Justice from
Something Wicked. But that aside, since you can't change the past, there are not so many other things that I will criticize except that the bass does not rings out as much as it does on the studio albums and that one guitar sounds a bit weak compared to the other guitar.
When I first discovered
Nuclear Assault I thought that they didn't sound like my area of thrash but I have been trying to experience most of their albums and now I have gotten used to the band. It really is a special band, definitely unique, not your pure breed thrash-metal band but I'm pretty sure that someone someday will find their favourite
Nuclear Assault song and perhaps become a new fan to the band. Since I have heard most of their material I think that this record would suit the fans best most of all, but if you are interested to get into the band I suggest that you get this album because it contains a great selection of songs that gives the listener a big view of the band and their music.
Pros
+ Great selection of songs that shows the bands best moments
+ John Connelly's vocals holds up very good
+ Unique band is all I have to say
+ The tempos might just be a tiny bit slower but the songs sounds almost identical compared to the studio songs.
Cons
- Danny Lilker's bass is not as audible as in the studio albums
- There are only songs from
three albums and
one EP, two albums are left out in the cold
Recommended Tracks
-- Brainwashed
-- Butt F*ck
-- Critical Mass
-- Rise From The Ashes
A pretty good album for beginners and great for the fans, some flaws but still an enjoyable album, the final rating will be 3.5/5
