Although normally I would view reunion albums with some skepticism, the 80s thrash metal revival has yielded some pretty impressive albums. Exodus’ Tempo of the Damned was one of the finest works of their career. Destruction’s various releases over the past few years have pretty managed to make everyone forget about the sonic abortion that was Cracked Brain. Death Angel’s the Art of Dying was pretty snazzy too. If you’re feeling nostalgic for the days when metal bands wore Bermuda shorts, it’s a good time to be alive.
When I first heard Nuclear Assault were doing a new album, I was excited. Although the band was never enormously popular, they put out some pretty solid albums. Their 1989 album Handle with Care is a criminally underrated masterpiece. Unfortunately the band ran out of steam and ideas with the Out of Order album. Then came Something Wicked, which was so bad it made Out of Order look good by comparison. By the time the band broke up, not many people cared. Still, I always thought that it was sad the band just sort of faded away and never really came up with fitting finale for their career. So, I regarded Third World Genocide as a chance for them to make up for their missteps in the early 90s.
Well, file this one under missed opportunities of the century, because this album is awful. It’s bad enough that John Connelly’s voice is shot to hell, but even worse is the fact that the rest of the band has pretty mush lost their ability to thrash. The first four songs on this album are plodding, lifeless affairs, but they are downright brilliant compared to “Whine and Cheese”. I think the band was trying to go for some sort of punk rock song here, but they ended up creating the audio equivalent of an Abu Gharib naked-man pyramid. It’s that awful.
Things pick up a bit with “Exoskeletal”, one of the few songs on the album that did not make me want to vomit blood. However, it’s a pretty weak track compared to their earlier material. And then things rapidly go downhill again with the inane “Hockey Song” and country/western track “Long Haired Asshole”. The album was so bad, that after I was done with it I immediately listened to it again because I was convinced that no Nuclear Assault album could possibly be that bad. I was right the first time around. If there has been a more disappointing album released in 2005, I haven’t heard it.
Bassist Dan Lilker is currently in two excellent projects (Venomous Concept and Crucifist), so I’m stunned that he willingly took part in this nonsense. Third World Genocide sounds like it was concocted over a weekend in an attempt to bilk unsuspecting fans out of their money because someone in the band was having trouble paying his rent. Hopefully, the band will break up again soon before they embarrass themselves further.
Article comments
1 - Guppusmaximus
LOL.... Great Review!! It's a shame that they came out with a crappy CD. I got over them when their drummer (Glenn?) formed CIA which was utter garbage... The new Exodus album was quite good of which I was also skeptical but if you like that, you should pick up the new KREATOR CD labeled "Enemy of God". It totally emulates Slayer"South of Heaven" with some funny rip-offs and on one song they even copy RUSH(imagine that)
But it's still got the nasty licks and punchy grooves...
2 - Eric Paone
I don't agree with that review. I think the album is kick ass!! It could've been a little thrashier. But, it sounds like where they left off several years ago. When you put the album on... It makes me want to start a circle pit!! Buy this new release now!!