I've always felt that the New York area thrash bands wore their punk influences on their sleeves more so than their Californian counterparts, and nowhere is this more apparent than on a Nuclear Assault album. Whether you sported long hair or a mohawk, Nuclear Assault's debut must have appealed to a wide range of punks and metalheads since it featured metal-as-fuck riffs coupled with a punk rock attitude. Add in some excellent songwriting and the howling vocals of John Connelly, and you have one of the better releases of 1986.
Nuclear Assault could play as fast as anyone, but they also played a lot of mid-paced stuff that was carried by great riffs and powerful vocals. Hearing songs like "Brain Death" and "After the Holocaust" in a sweaty NYC club in 1986 must have been quite the trip because even though they may not be the fastest songs around, they evoke a sense of turmoil that would have to make for a great live experience. Given the amount of notoriety other releases from 1986 have garnered, I'm surprised that Game Over isn't right there with them -- I mean, it's fun as fuck, and there are moments that are as punishing as anything out there at the time. Sure, the guitars are a little thin and there are some needless interlude tracks, but this is a welcome addition to the thrash metal equation.
1. Live, Suffer, Die
2. Sin
3. Cold Steel
4. Betrayal
5. Radiation Sickness
6. Hang the Pope
7. After the Holocaust
8. Mr. Softee Theme
9. Stranded in Hell
10. Nuclear War
11. My America
12. Vengeance
13. Brain Death
Score: 8.5/10
The problem with Hirax's first album, released a year earlier was that it was just too much of the same thing. 2-minute blast after 2-minute blast for a half hour can get tedious and is the main reason I've never been able to get into hardcore or grindcore. Whether it was intentional or not, Hirax improved on their debut in two ways. The first is that it's about half as long at a whopping 16 minutes. The second is that they figured out that good thrash isn't always full-speed ahead.
That second point is the key to this album being much better than their first album. Even though the first three tracks are straight-ahead speed freaks, with the 40-second title track featuring something that resembles a blast beat, it's the second half of the album where we see Hirax start to vary their songwriting. "The Last War" features an excellent, punishing main riff that sounds very similar to what Slayer would start doing a couple years later. The slower parts also give Katon's soaring vocals room to breathe and in doing so makes you wonder why they didn't do more of it. It's a shame that Hirax wouldn't be heard from again (other than a demo in 1987) until 2004, because there's a whole lot of potential in this release.
1. Hate, Fear & Power
2. Blind Faith
3. Unholy Sacrifice
4. Lightning Thunder
5. The Last War
6. The Plague
7. Imprisoned By Ignorance
8. Criminal Punishment
Score: 7/10
From what I can tell, Zoetrope's debut is a very strong album indeed! While there's nothing groundbreaking about it, Zoetrope plays a nice gritty style that makes me think a little bit of Motorhead and probably a little bit of Overkill as well -- Razor around the same time period isn't a bad comparison either. The band self-described their music as "street metal" which is bang-on... I can only assume this would have been the perfect soundtrack for Chicago thrash pits in the mid-80's -- screaming guitars, gang shouts, mosh riffs, yes please!
1. Indecent Obsessions
2. Kill the Enemy
3. Mercenary
4. Amnesty
5. Member in a Gang
6. Break Your Back
7. Another Chance
8. Creatures
9. Trip Wires
Score: 7.5/10
Hirax were a pretty unique band in the 80's thrash scene. They played a heads-down, full-speed-ahead, crossover style but with Katon W De Pena's soaring, almost boyish vocals over top, they stood out from the pack. Just looking over the song lengths on their debut, you can see that they're all pretty short bursts of violence, which is fine but it leaves little room for variety. By the time you get about halfway through the album, the constant speed and De Pena's incessant warbling gets kind of tiresome. It's always been my opinion that good thrash should have a good amount of mid-paced and even slow parts to set up the breakneck, I'll-fucking-murder-your-family riffs. In that respect, Hirax fails. It's a fun album to listen to in short doses, but I can't see myself sitting down and listening to the whole 30:52 any time soon.
1. Demons - Evil Forces
2. Blitzkrieg Air Attack
3. Guardian Protector
4. Bombs of Death
5. Defeat of Amalek
6. Raging Violence
7. Call of the Gods
8. Warlords Command
9. Suicide
10. Executed
11. The Gauntlet
12. Destruction and Terror
13. Destroy
14. Bloodbath
Score: 5/10
Like a lot of people, I was first introduced to the weird world of Peter Steele through Type O Negative, and while the doomy, gothic sounds of that band are lightyears away from the post-apocalyptic speed-thrash of Carnivore, the same wit and humour still applies. The first three songs here are total fucking winners, with pounding double bass, downright maniacal vocals and some pretty hilarious lyrics -- a trend that would continue throughout the album.
There are some tunes that aren't great, like "Armageddon" and "Legion of Doom", and the fact that the vocals are just so out front and powerful kind of wears on you as the album goes on, but this is a solid album. It's also a pretty unique album, especially considering this is a thrash (crossover?) album fron NYC in 1985. How about that wacky chorus in "God is Dead"? It's too bad Lord Petrus had to leave us so soon, even if he wasn't making new Carnivore music (although he WAS playing shows with a new Carnivore lineup).
1. Predator
2. Carnivore
3. Male Supremacy
4. Armageddon
5. Legion of Doom
6. God is Dead
7. Thermonuclear Warrior
8. World Wars III and IV
Score: 7.5/10
