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NAPALM - ZERO TO BLACK (1990)
Napalm's second full-length Zero to black was released in 1990 by Steamhammer (SPV). Their ballad The other side feels grey sounds a bit like a Napalms version of Beatles Let it be, They remind me of each other in a strange way, a strong creation though.

Zero to Black has a quite typical sound for a thrash band at the time, Napalm sounded a bit like funk thrashers Mordred. Vocalist Stig C. Liggio sounds like a raspier version of Mordred's vocalist Scott Holderby, with that I mean a singing vocalist, no Tom Araya-screams here.

He ain't the best vocalist. Napalms music is somewhere in the 80's Anthrax-region with a touch of funk/thrashers Mordred. The funky bassguitar handled by Brett Roth stands out a lot on this album, because he is given a lot of space to show off his talent, the bass volume is quite high which I do like.

The leadguitars which is shared by Liggio and Kult, is also quite enjoyable. Don't get fooled by the hideous sci-fi looking album cover, this is still thrash metal, not the best thrash I've ever heard but it's ok.  

⭐⭐

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NASTY SAVAGE - PSYCHO PSYCHO (2004)

Fifteen years after the Penetration point-vinyl Nasty Savage is back and it feels almost like this album could have been released in the late eigthies, because the lineup are intact and the sound too! Nasty Ronnies vocals are a bit lower than before, but his voice can definitely be recognized, even if his falsettos aren't as often used on Psycho Psycho.

One of my favourite bands is actually Nasty Savage, too bad that they never where as known to man as they should have been. They ruled the floridian scene before Death and others took over. The production has similarities to the new Exodus-album I think, maybe because they both where released in 2004. The music ain't that far away from Exodus either. I've seen a lot of descriptions on their sound and some call it techno thrash and others power/thrash. So this release is somehow a mix of thrash and heavy metal, the way Nasty Savage always have been.

I have always thought of Nasty Savage as a thrash version of Mercyful Fate, both bands have a frontman that changes his voice from a low clear voice to high vocal peaks and the guitar duo has the same way of making breaks and leads. The song Savage Desire has been re-recorded, I'm not really sure why as it's not one of their best songs. Another typical Nasty thing is that they also refuses to let the WWF-wrestling theme go away, this time the wrestler Chris Jericho do some backup vocals, fortunately not that much as his singing is below average. 2004 has been an interesting year with Exodus, Death Angel, Hirax and Nasty Savage back recording again, Psycho, Psycho is one of the best albums of 2004, if not the best.   

⭐⭐⭐

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NASTY SAVAGE - WAGE OF MAYHEM (2002)

Prior to the release of their comeback album Psycho Psycho Nasty Savage re-released their old Wage of Mayhem demo and they added two new songs Sardonic Mosiac and the title track Wage of Mayhem. You can hear some 20 years of difference between the songs but still their style hasn't changed that much, it's mostly the production values that has changed. Both of the new songs are worth listening to if you're a fan of the band and if you haven't heard the original Wage of Mayhem demo that was released in 1984, you should lay your hands on this re-release now.

You might recognize their huge hit XXX, which was later a hit on their Indulgence (1987) -album, Unchained Angel was also released on the Abstract Reality EP (1988). So you got an EP here that spans their whole career more or less.

Nasty Savage was definitely one of the most underrated bands of the genre and still a personal favourite of mine and you can understand why they got their record deal to begin with because the demo tracks from 1984 are triumphant. I would probably give these songs a higher rating if it wasn't a re-released demo more or less. If you're a fan of the band then you should lay your hands on this EP if you come across it. 

⭐⭐⭐

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NASTY SAVAGE - PENETRATION POINT (1989)

Penetratoin point was Nasty Savage last album before the split up. Back in 1989 thrash metal where in it's popularity peak and it has been a fairly successful era for Nasty Ronnie and company and Penetration Point was their last in line. Penetration Point was a great way to finish it all off instead of going on into the nineties without a direction to go, as most bands that continued.

Penetration Point is a typical Nasty Savage release, fast varied riffs, very american in sound and style. And look at the artwork, haha, seen too many episodes of Miami Vice have we? :), awful album art. But fortunately it is the inside that counts because Nasty Savage offers us nine  tracks of high quality american thrash metal. Ronnie 'Nasty' Galetti has almost skipped his wonderful falsetto screams and that's a minus. But the music itself is of high class. Penetration Point is more technical and thrashier than their earlier material. I'm sure that they'll never top their magnificent debut but Penetration Point comes close enoug. Nasty Savage's albums are all easy to find on LP and they are always cheap, so what are you waiting for? 

⭐⭐⭐⭐

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NASTY SAVAGE - ABSTRACT REALITY (1988)

Abstract Reality is an EP that Nasty Savage produced between the Indulgence and Penetration Point-albums. Abstract Reality is a great EP, it has everything a good EP needs. Great rhythm and lead guitars from the duo Austin and Meyer. They have really improved a lot as musicians over the last couple of years and I must say that I really love Ronnie Galetti's operatic voice.

His voice was made for this type of aggressive music. He can sing aggressive and hi falsetto can be compared to King Diamond's. Unfortunately there is only four songs on this release and I could have wished that they would have done another record but hey. You can't get everything you want.

I felt that Nasty Savage was always underrated as a thrash metal band, I definitely think they can compete with the best acts in the genre. Abstract Reality was also recorded during the eighties, the period when the band delivered their best material so this EP will not leave anyone unsatisfied.  

⭐⭐⭐⭐

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NASTY SAVAGE - INDULGENCE (1987) (Review by: Mikael Vedin)

The second album by this classic thrash band from Florida. And what an album. It’s so fucking intense with some really great songs and cool vocals (although they nowadays may seem a bit silly sometimes). The singer goes by the name of “Nasty Ronnie”, pretty cool huh?. The music is really aggressive and intense, I remember when I first heard this album, it was like nothing I had ever heard. But even now, quite a few years later it still strikes me how heavy this album really is.

All songs have something to offer but the ones that really makes an impression I think is “Stabbed in the Back”, “Inferno” and of course the classic “XXX” . Worth mentioning is also “Divination” for it’s silly high-pitched vocals, there is no way that could have been cool even when this album was released. This album is also available with the EP Abstract Reality as bonus so if you planning to get it try to seek out that one. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐

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NASTY SAVAGE - NASTY SAVAGE (1985)

1985, what an excellent year of thrash. A whole bunch of great bands popped up out of nowhere and Nasty Savage was certainly one of those great bands.

This selftitled debut was like something fresh breeze when most bands aimed for a faster sound. Ronnie 'Nasty' Galetti has one of the best voices in the business.

He has the rawness like Tom G. Warrior (Celtic Frost)  but add to that the extremely high falsettos not so far away in sound from King Diamond (Mercyful Fate). If you take every metal stereotype to it's maximum then you'll get Manowar, take it way beyond maximum and you'll get Nasty Savage, just gotta love it! The music itself is varied from galopping thrash riffs to melodic and dark sequences. Take the best from Mercyful Fate and mix it with early some power/thrash and you'll get a fair idea what Nasty Savage is about. I happen to think that Nasty Savage is one of the best bands in the business and their debut is indeed excellent. To bad they never got the attention as the big bands in the genre, can they get yours? 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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NECRONOMICON - NECRONOMICON (1986) (Review by: Danne W.)

In the middle of the 80's there was a lot of bands that had a pretty hidden existence in the german scene behind the three more known bands Kreator, Sodom and Destruction. Necronomicon was definitly one of those bands that never got so much attention outside of Germany.This (their debutalbum)was released on Wave Records and must be classified as a cult classic.

They have often been compared to the aforementioned Destruction, and I can in some ways agree to that. The singer sounds very smilar to Schmier,he has the same type of raw voice like him. He even does some high-pitched screams like Schmier did/does.The vocals also have the typical german accent,and it sounds a bit funny sometimes.The music is quite varied and has many tempochanges, but it's not as advanced as something you would hear on for instance a Destruction album.

Sometimes it's not really tight, especially the drums get out of the line, but that only makes this record even more enjoyable, dirty german thrash metal as it was meant to be! Judging by the bandpicture they seem to have been very young when they did this album (they look like some 16-18 year old punks).Productionwise it's nothing to complain about,you can hear all the instruments clearly. The best songs on this album in my opinion are Dark Land, Hades Invasion and Iron Charm. All in all a very cool album and a must if you're into early Destruction/Sodom. If you're into the Bay Area type of more technical thrash this is probably not so enjoyable.This record is probably quite hard to get, I know that it can be found on cd, but if it's a official release or a bootleg I don't know. 

⭐⭐⭐

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NEVERMORE - NEVERMORE (1995) 

In the nineties you had to look real deep to find any old school sounding metal so it was a perfect time to create more traditional types of metal. When most bands tried to be Pantera and Machine Head-clones Nevermore tried to re-awaken a more traditional sound. Their music was as heavy as anything new but based more in power metal than in thrash. Add to that Halford-esque vocals from Warrel Dane, So one could say that Nevermore was a somewhat recognizable oddball when they first came unto the scene.

This was their debut album but the musicians in Nevermore had some experience from before. Warrel Dane used to sing for Power Metal legends Sanctuary and Jeff Loomis had been on a Megadeth-audition even if he was just a youngster back then. But enough of the history lesson, here we are reviewing Nevermore's self-titled debut album from 1995.

Nevermore is a talented band and they are delivering well here on their debut, Jeff Loomis is a highly talented guitarist and Jim Sheppard and Van Williams does a rock solid job as well. The structures are based heavily in the old traditions of heavy metal but at the same time the album is a product of it's day with a tight 90's production, not completely unlike a band like Iced Earth. But Nevermore's debut is hardly a thrash metal album, this is more of a heavy sounding power metal album with some minor speed and thrash tendencies but only when it comes to the instruments, because Warrel Dane doesn't sound like any other thrash metal vocalist I've heard.

The band could easily be dismissed as just another modern groove album for any casual listener because of Nevermore's modern edge, but that would be a bit unfair. Anyhow, This album was a bit of fresh air when it came out and the band is indeed talented and the album was beloved by metal fans, but not always as praised by the guards of old school thrash. 

⭐⭐⭐

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NUCLEAR ASSAULT - SOMETHING WICKED (1993)

The early nineties was a rough period on Nuclear Assault, excessive drug use, and two key members in Anthony Bramante and Dan Lilker had recently left the band, Vocalist John Connelly was working on his solo-project at the same time. But Glenn Evans did a solid job trying to keep things together, he even produced the album together with an engineer. So you can imagine that Nuclear Assault's fifth album was a struggle and it became the bands last album before they disbanded (They have made a comeback album since). One must also remember the trends in the business at the time.

Thrash metal was just about the worst thing someone could play by 1993. The album probably got some extra bashing for actually playing metal instead of releasing a grunge or groove metal album. But at the same time the band feels a bit confused here, not exactly sure of their direction. At times this sound more like what Megadeth was doing around Countdown to Extinction/Youthanasia than an actual Nuclear Assault-release. The band over-simplifies things and the band rarely delivers any riffs in breakneck-speed, but Dave DiPietro's soloing is flawless.

The band has lost some of it's youthful and aggressive ways and instead writing heavier and more punishing material, without being too grinding. Half the band was gone but still the band delivers a somewhat underestimated album in 1993's Something Wicked. 

⭐⭐⭐

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NUCLEAR ASSAULT - LIVE AT THE HAMMERSMITH ODEAN (1992)

Nuclear Assault got a gig at classic Hammersmith odeon in 1990 and this is as you can guess a live-album. This show is from their "Handle with care"-tour which also featured Dark Angel, D.A.M. and Candlemass. I have seen a review of this disc on another metal homepage and they claimed this album to be "the worst live-recordings ever", and I agree that it's a crappy recording, but I've heard worse. It's noisy, raw and distorted.

The last song "good times, bad times" is a Led Zeppelin-cover. In the song "Butt f**k" vocalist John Connelly mumbles the words. The song "Lesbians" have never been released on any other album by Nuclear Assault. I think that you should concentrate on their albums before picking up this disc. This is higly unnecessary as recorded live shows often becomes so blurry when released as an album. 

⭐

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NUCLEAR ASSAULT - OUT OF ORDER (1991)

As the title implies, something is out of order here on Nuclear Assault's fourth studio album. By the release of Out of Order Nuclear Assault had built a name for themselves as one of the genre's most exciting bands, but the band doesn't fully live up to their reputation here. A couple of songs feels uninspiring and uncohesive. The choruses doesn't stick with you like they once did and the tempo in Out of order has dropped significantly without leaving the lower speed limits of the thrash genre.

But in comparison to what the other big thrash bands were doing at the time this album was clinging on to the past instead of looking to jump in a lifeboat when the ship was about to sink. So the album might have received some bashing for it's lack of creativity but I think it deserves more cred than the albums that Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and so on released during the early nineties. Not every band around wanted to trade in their sound for dollars. But lets be frank here, The material very seldom reaches the standard the band set with their earlier classic material. 

The low-point is the rather terrible Ballroom Blitz-cover a song that they should have skipped. In our interview with Glenn Evans he said that the band was in a bad shape when they recorded this album, with tons of booze, drugs and a lack of commitment from the band members made everything a lot harder. But in the end the album sold 200.000 copies which is rather impressive for a quite anonymous album. Over the years Out of order has got a lot of bashing but it's not as bad as some may think. But I wouldn't consider the material to be classic either. 

⭐⭐

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NUCLEAR ASSAULT - HANDLE WITH CARE (1989)

Yikes, what a ferocious record, at least in the vocals and guitar department. Fortunately the drumming ain't as speedy, I think the whole album would drown in noise if Glenn Evans kept up with Connelly and Bramante. Nuclear Assault had come a long way in their career by 1989 and the songwriting has developed a whole lot since the Game over-days. It's still the same insane speed and the whining high-pitched vocals, but the songs are better structured. I never really liked John Connelly's vocals but still I can't ignore the band, because the instrumentation is flawless.

Nuclear Assault was from New York and it was a special scene there, many thrash metal bands in the area was influenced by the hardcore scene that was huge in t he big apple and Nucleas Assault was no different. Friends of bands like S.O.D., Suicidal Tendencies and early Anthrax must buy this album right away. And I just love straight ahead thrash metal and that's exactly what Nuclear Assault gives us. Handle with care is without a doubt Nuclear Assault's prime.  

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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NUCLEAR ASSAULT - SURVIVE (1988)

After doing a tour with Agent Steel and Atomkraft Nuclear Asssault left Combat Records and signed up with I.R.S. records and released Survive, which is their second full-length studio album in 1988. Stylistically it's a continuation of the distinct sound from Game Over. Punkish thrash with some nasal semi-highpitched barking by John Connelly. The lyrics and songtitles feels a bit hardcorish but the songs are more intricate.

Good Times, Bad Times is a Led Zeppelin cover and it doesn't feel so necessary but ok it doesn't sink the ship. I love their "hit song" Brainwashed for it's brilliant iconic chorus where Connelly sings "Why don't you think for yourself?" The song got some airtime on MTV at the time. Tracks like Brainwashed, F#, Equal Rights and Rise From the Ashes are all superb tracks. Survive was a success for the band and it entered the Billboard top 200 list at place 145 which led to a tour supporting Slayer.

This is one of Nuclear Assault's finest moments and an essential album for fans of some punkish chugga-chugga-chugga metal. Buy or die!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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NUCLEAR ASSAULT - THE PLAGUE (1987)

After their solid debut-LP "Game Over" Nuclear Assault released this EP in 1987 on Combat Records. Nuclear Assault really hit their stride with this EP. A far superior production was one reason this EP even surpasses "Game Over in longevity. The music is nihilistic and chaotic as always when it comes to Nuclear Assault. They have a sound that no other band could duplicate, much thanks to John Connelly's squeky and unique voice. Maybe his vocals are a bit of an acquired taste though. "The Plague" was originally titled "Cross of Iron" but combat records didn't like the idea, because it could stir some controversy with different religious organizations. But I guess that's OK, The Plague sounds much cooler.

Nuclear Assault presenting the world some superb hyperactive and direct thrash metal with very characteristic vocals and a lot of catchy vocal lines, choruses and hooks. Great drumming and fast riffage delivery. The Plague is a great EP for every fan of thrash in general and Nuclear Assault in particular.  

⭐⭐⭐⭐

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NUCLEAR ASSAULT - GAME OVER (1986)

After the split from Anthrax, Bassist Danny Lilker formed Nuclear Assault with John Connelly, Anthony Bramante and Glenn Evans. No time was spilled and the band headed for the studio and recorded Game Over in may of 1986 in New York. Soon Nuclear Assault gained a large following and they are now considered as one of the three major acts from New York together with Overkill and earlier mentioned Anthrax.

This album feels more like a continuation of Anthrax debut "Fistful of metal" than what Anthrax second album "Spreading the disease" does. Mostly due to a higher speed and the  take no prisoners-mentality. Game Over was produced by the legendary Alex Perialas (Overkill, Testament, etc). Nuclear Assaults music where at the highest possible speed, Nuclear Assault combines thrash, speed and hardcore to create an original style.

Some might be a little annoyed by John Connellys whining and high-pitched voice, I was at first disturbed by it but the more I listen to Nuclear Assault the more I think it fits the band.

Classics like Sin, Radiation Sickness, Betrayal and Hang the pope is classic Nuke material. Hang the Pope is not the greatest song but the lyrics are hilarious. Game Over is a confident, unique and totally raging debut-album and one for the history books. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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NUCLEAR ASSAULT - BRAIN DEATH (1986)

Just months prior the Game Over-LP, Nuclear Assaults debuts with this EP titled Brain Death. The band would later on release a few real classic thrash metal albums but on Brain Death the band hadn't fully developed yet. Sure there are a few of the charachteristics that we learned to love over the years like John Connelly's vocals and his patented crazy air raid siren shrieks.

The music is kind of pummeling and primitive but everything feels a bit sloppy compared to the professionalism the band displays on their first three full-lengths. The first track on this EP is Brain Death which is also included on the "Game Over"-LP. The production of this EP is below average, but that happens sometimes, especially with debuting bands. Brain Death has it's few highlights but overall this is highly average and the band evolved as musicians over the following years. The best is yet to come. 

⭐⭐⭐

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NUM SKULL - RITUALLY ABUSED (1986)

Ritually Abused is an abusive piece of vinyl, released in 1988 by Num Skull from Winthrop Harbor, Illinois.

I would describe Ritually Abused as somewhere in the Possessed meets Exodus region, the album has that crude 80's sound and Num Skull delivers one of the most frantic and unrelenting thrash albums of the golden decade. When it comes to sheer brutality Ritually Abused belongs in the same category as classic brutal thrashterpieces like Epidemic of Violence, Darkness Descends, Spectrum of Death and Pleasure To Kill.

It's really that good and intense and vocalist Skip McGullam sounds like he was the love child of Paul Baloff and Jeff Becerra. Super aggressive vocals and the music itself is more in the traditional thrash realm compared to the outrageous vocals. Ritually Abused is an album where everything falls in place, the insane vocals, the blistering solos, fast tremolo picking, hammering drums. Ritually Abused is THE album by Num Skull, because the band evolved into a more regular death metal act over the years, similar to what a band like Pestilence did. So it's definitely Ritually Abused you need to lay your hands on if you're curious of one of the genres most brutal and unforgiving albums of all time, Ritually Abused by Num Skull. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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