Nuclear Assault - Handle With Care (1989)

The high standard of furious thrash churned out by Nuclear Assault enabled the band to sit pretty high in the major thrash league. In the '80s, alongside the likes of Testament, Death Angel, Exodus, Overkill, Nuclear Assault spearheaded the art of mosh without withering in the shadow of bands like Slayer and Megadeth. Nuclear Assault have always littered their brash sound with humour and a hardcore slant, mainly in the vicious vocals of John Connelly. Some found the harsh delivery of Connelly a little too shredding on the ears, but amidst Lilker's thudding bass and the crunching guitars of Bramante, the cauldron the band stirred was one of some heat. The songs flash past at quite a speed, and rarely drop lower than hyper, but the band do on occasion let themselves drift into an Anthrax chug or Slayer burst. The big songs on 'Handle...' are the forceful 'Critical Mass', 'Emergency' and fist pumping 'Search And Seizure'. My only quib with Nuclear Assault being their tendency to include too many comedy moments, for example, the pointless insertion of 'Funky Noise', yet something which so many bands at the time were doing, even for fun, to give a nod to the irritating funk metal movement. However, if you're after an abrasive introduction to '80s thrash then you could do a lot worse than Nuclear Assault. 'Handle With Care' was rather underrated, my personal fave of the band being the fantastic 'Survive' album, but 'Handle...' still goes a long way in the thrash department.

7/10