NUCLEAR ASSAULT
Louder Harder Faster
Screaming FerretTrack listing:
While their comeback studio album, "Third World Chaos", was an unmitigated piece of shit, it was still nice to see NUCLEAR ASSAULT get back together. One of the quirkiest and most interesting thrash bands of the 80's, their punk and grind influences and irreverent attitude made for some of the all-time classics of the era. Live, they were always a glorious trainwreck, too, an obnoxious good time, as the long-deleted "Live From the Hammersmith Odeon" video showed back in 1991.
They couldn't get the mix right back then, unfortunately, and the problem seems to have persisted for fifteen years. This set, to put it mildly, sounds like a truckload of ass. The footage is b-grade camcorder shots, reasonably well edited and put together, but the sound mix is awful, certainly not worthy of the band's stature (or at all mindful of their thrashy attack). The song selection is worthwhile, focusing on fan favorites and classics, but it sounds rotten enough to scarcely warrant a second viewing.
The bonus footage includes two videos from the aforementioned piece-of-shit new album, a boring interview, and some classic homegrown live footage that would be crucial if it wasn't borderline unwatchable (even it its poor-quality state, it blows away the main presentation). You also get two audio tracks of unreleased songs, a throwaway homage "Celtic Frosty Cold Beer" (yeesh) and an amped-up cover of "Folsom Prison Blues" that'll hopefully see the light of day under better circumstances.
The world still needs a definitive live NUCLEAR ASSAULT release. This ain't it. Between "Louder Harder Faster" and "Third World Chaos", this whole reunion has turned out to be a real friggin' bust so far.