NUCLEAR DEATH TERROR – CHAOS REIGNS
NUCLEAR DEATH TERROR – Chaos Reigns CD
I’ve followed this band for a few years and have their earlier album as well as 7”. With that I can say without any hesitation that this is by far NDT best effort. This album sounds amazing! The production the mix, it’s fucking rad! The guitar tone is so fucking chunky and powerful it just makes you say “Fuck yeah!”. The warm fuzz of the bass really fills in the sound while complimenting the guitar and adding to the overall power. The drums snap and sound fricken’ tight! This is a solid sounding record. The amazing sound is pulled off without any sacrifice of edge or attitude and has just the right amount of rawness to it. According to the liner notes it was recorded at two different studios but you wouldn’t guess that by the consistency throughout the album. This leads me to believe it was maybe the raw tracks were all mixed at the same place, that’s what the even quality would suggest anyway. Just because it’s crust doesn’t mean it has to be all blown out and undecipherable. And that’s just what this is. CRUST! NDT tip their hats to EXTREME NOISE TERROR and DOOM and play ass kicking metallic crust that gets close, but never gives in to grindcore. They get the tempo going but never grind it out, opting to go for uber fast punk beats instead. The song structures are awesome and they add enough twists and turns to keep the songs from blending together too much. At times they even surrender to beak-downs that would make SLAYER smile. The lyrics are somewhat poetic but also very direct descriptions of a decaying world and are delivered with all rage, aggression and angst that you would expect. Celebrated “crust” artist Hush did the awesome Grim Reaper cover art which will certainly make for some cool shirts. 10 original songs and a crushing cover of the CELTIC FROST classic ‘Morbid Tales’ round out this album. I don’t know if this was released on vinyl, I have the disc. With that if you let it play you just might find a hidden track. This is kind of album that makes the hair on your arms stand up and makes you stoked that you listen to crust. When I play this CD it makes me want to put on my grimy vest and watch National Geographic war documentaries with the volume down so I can have the visuals of explosions and the atrocities of war with a raging crust punk sound track. For some reason it just seems fitting. NUCLEAR DEATH TERROR rules. And as we wrap this up it seems Southern Lord is no longer just dipping their toes in the crust pond, I think they are up to their knees by now with releases from several crusty punk bands including MARTYRDOD, OIL TANKER and WOLF BRIGADE among others. Word. (Josh Mosh)
ThrashPunx 