In 1989, I was 13 years old and got turned onto metal and early punk in equal doses, but really clicked with thrash and metal bands of the day. I watched Headbanger's Ball with abandon and me and my friends compared bands we discovered there and in Metal Maniacs, a great metal magazine of the day. Nuclear Assault released 1989's Handle With Care and produced a video for it with the band playing in front of an oil rig in the desert and that, along with the crushing sound of Dan Liker's bass made this album a must get for me. I bought it, got super into the band.
This is their first LP, 1986's Game Over, which is a searingly fast and direct thrash metal record. It's a great first record and its easy to see how Combat signed them after hearing a few of these tracks of their earlier demo tape. It's 13 tracks compacted into 33 minutes of sheer speed and aggression. The cover is as unrelenting and brash as the music with nearly day-glo colors and apocalyptic imagery and as a 13-year-old, I was drawn to it like afternoon cartoons after school.
As with a lot of cassettes I had back in the day, I listened to it religiously, but it never took over the top spot as Handle With Care became one of my favorite records.
There are a number of classic tracks here like "Live, Suffer Die", "Betrayal" and "Sin," all standouts and all excellent.
"Sin" is a great standout track and whenever I listen to it, I remember the whole of the genre and how fresh and exciting it was compared to glam metal and commercial metal. It really gave me a good understanding of the underground and how music not on the radio could still be amazing and moving, which was a bit of a revelation to a 13-year-old.
"Betrayal" is still one of my fav's on this record and its an anthemic piece, good for singing along with after some imagined slight, but mostly just awesome at anytime.
There's few times when I feel the need to have three youtube links, but I couldn't leave off " Hang The Pope," a Liker vocalized track and a humorous mid-album excursion and one of those songs that always seemed to make it onto a metal comp cassette you'd make for a friend.
Bought at Laurie's, which just goes to show they are the kings of having just about anything in their New Release bin.
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