I really dislike the production on Handle with Care. The guitars sounds like a muddled mess compared to Survive. Even Game Over has a better guitar sound, just the levels are really low.
@@Gregbaltzer I always had that impression, too. All instruments were drown in echo like if they recorded all together inside an hangar. Great songs, though.
Glad you did this one! I found Game Over on cassette tape in 1988 in one of those bargin close out bins at those things we used to call record stores, and I thought I struck gold! Agree that they were definitely overlooked due to the bigger name bands very popular releases during that time... I guess you could say that about several thrash bands back then that had potential, but never made it big... Kids today will never know how cool it was to be young during that time, and grow into metal in late 70s and 80s...
As an 80's thrasher, I was lucky enough to see them almost a dozen times at L'Amour and other metal clubs in the NYC and tri-state area. Always a great time seeing them live! And yes, I'm a long haired asshole!
Spot on ranked IMO! I’m 50 and these guys still have a big presence in most of my playlists. I’ve always been a big crossover fan. Would love to see DRI albums ranked 🙏
Shout out to Handle With Care which has some of the finest audio engineering in classic thrash. Everything sounds perfect, heavy and clear, punchy drums, clanky bass, audible vocals and chunky guitars. 🤟
Handle With Care is just hard to hear, sound’s too loud over the instruments; therefore, it’s production-wise. Game Over and Survive are very good just low levels in sound. Something Wicked sounds great, Out of Order has bad quality, Third World Genocide is an awesome album just those drums sound like shit; the title track snare drum is so pissy.
The first 3 albums are all equally brilliant . As a young teenager in 1988 I remember going to buy Survive , spending every last cent I had saved . Good memories
The first song I ever heard was Brainwashed. Survive is my favorite album of theirs. Handle With Care was amazing as well. Game Over and The Plague ep were great as well. Game Over proved strong material can overcome shitty production. I learned about these guys back in 1988 when I was 12.
yeah, spotify is strange, they remove albums and put them back all the time which ruins all my playlists over time. :S Great to have them back again though.
My list (changed a little bit from yours): 1 - Handle With Care 2 - Game Over 3 - Survive 4 - Out of Order 5 - Something Wicked 6 - Third World Genocide
There's something about Something Wicked that makes me love it so so much. The songs are just beautiful and I love the slower tempo. That album it's such a gem.
Game Over was actually my first intro to Nuclear Assault and loved it. Wasn’t familiar with the 90’s albums, just the first three. Thanks for ranking Bro! Cheers! 🤘🏼
@@RuthlessMetalYT It's true this record got a bit overlooked & overshadowed by other records during these insanely strong years, especially 1986. I myself bought this one because of 'Hang the pope' (a bit weird if you think about it, for it's only a few seconds long 🤔😉), otherwise I'd probably left it behind. Glad I did buy it, but back in the day it wasn't among my favorites (like Reign, Puppets, Pleasure, etc.).
My most vivid memories of NA back in the day, are of seeing them live. None of their albums fully captures the intensity of their live performance. They always seemed on the brink of disintegrating into chaos. But never did.
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My favorite Nuclear Assault albums are 1. Handle With Care 2. Game Over 3. Survive 4. Something Wicked And I never really checked the rest out. Few songs from Out Of Order and Third World Genocide but they didn't do it for me. But Nuclear Assault isn't really my go to band either that I actively listen to, but 2 first albums are still killing it!
Ah, I love Nuclear Assault. I even like «Something Wicked…» and «Out of Order». Not as good as the first three, but back in the days I didn’t care. My favourite is Handle with Care. That bass sound is perfect.
I Have To Go With Game Over #1 As The Original Guitarist For Nuclear Assault I Played Some Of Those Songs On The First Demo and There's A Special Place For That Album In My Heart! 🤘
Dude my ranking would be identical to yours! And thanks so much for bringing this great and underrated thrash metal band to light! Game Over was my first exposure to Nuclear Assault during high school in the early 90's borrowed from a friend of mine. And I also borrowed Survive and they both were on cassette jamming in my walkman. lol Good times and I cracked up on some of their songs as well. Like Lesbians and Hang The Pope.
Not a huge NA fan, "Survive" is the only one I like which I still do listen to. I can still remember being 13 watching the video for "Brainwashed" the first time.
It was the first studio album I bought too, but I was almost scared away with the hammersmith live album which was the first one I bought but it was quite a noisy recording. Cheers! 🤘
When I was 13 years old my cousin's boyfriend put in a VHS tape of a Nuclear Assault concert. I became a fan. Brain Death is still my favorite song by them.
I'll have to go back and listen to the first two albums. I bought 'Handle with Care' when it came out and liked it but it is not something I have listened to over the years. You mention metal being dead in 93' but for me, metal was alive and well, it had just passed it's peak in popularity by 1993. Bands were still coming out with great albums: Overkill, Sepultura, Pantera, Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, etc. Ruthless Metal guy, are you a fan of Meshuggah? Please to Meshuggah and Sepultura next. Cheers!
Yeah, but that's a different type of metal than the type that most of us liked in the 80's. For me that downtuned and dumbed down stuff from the 90's wasn't the right direction for metal and thus it's popularity dropped significantly simply because the albums weren't as good anymore. I dislike Meshuggah, They are crap in my book. So that won't happen. A Sepultura rank is coming up though... Cheers!
@@RuthlessMetalYT Nåja.. Det är aldrig försent att bredda sig! Började inte gilla Black Metal förän i 25-30 års åldern. Nu är jag snart 47 och börjar gilla även mjukare hård musik.
Guess I'm partial to "Survive" as it's the album that got me into Nuclear Assault. Although I'm definitely going to re-visit "Game Over" having watched this video ☢
Metal James, I totally understand why you feel that way. Often times I remember the albums most fondly that I got into 1st. Game Over is a great record, Handle With Care I prefer slightly because it has better production. Survive is a great record too, those are the essential Nuclear Assault LP's, plus don't forget The Plauge and Braindeath EPs.
@@RuthlessMetalYT Game Over was my introduction to the band. I remember Metal Mania gave it a scathing review, said it sounded like it was recorded in a cheese factory or something. The following year I met a friend who was into a lot of thrash metal and hardcore turned me on to them, along with Suicidal Tendencies and Flotsam And Jetsam's 1st album "Doomsday For The Deciever". That was around 1987. Game Over is really raw, but has a lot of NYHC energy and a more agressive vibe as well. Their proto grindcore/HC songs like "Hang The Pope" and "Lesbians" were pure gold. I wish they did a whole album of songs in that style.
Nuclear are of one of those bands whose debut was so good that their following albums got worse and worse, with the notable exception of "Handle with care", which is at least as good as "Survive". In my opinion they released too much stuff on the EPs (6 songs on "The Plague", plus 3 non album original tracks on the "Brain death" and "Fight to be free" singles, and "Lesbians" was omitted from the original "Game over" album) and got out of steam pretty quickly. "Out of order" was so bad because of Connelly lack of commitment, Lilker kept the more extreme stuff for Brutal Truth and Bramante had to write the bulk of the album even if he didn't write anything on the older records. Speaking of Bramante, his exit happened when Di Pietro was already in the band, NA was briefly a 5 piece with Connelly handling vocals only, then Anthony left for good.
Handle With Care was my introduction to the band, specifically “Search & Seizure” on an internet metal channel. So, I tend to hold a bias towards that as my favorite. But Game Over and Survive, are too, like you said, masterpieces of the genre. These dudes are the ones who started my love for underground thrash so I hold them in extremely high regard.
Maybe you could do Helloween album rankings. I know that you maybe don't know that much about the band, but you can always search for some important informations about band, or worst and best albums
I love early Running Wild but I'm not super familiar with their more recent albums but I will probably change that some day and do a rank of their albums. :) Cheers!
@@RuthlessMetalYT I love the old stuff, till mid of the 90th. Pile of Skulls was their last perfect record. Masquerade and Victory were average. After this.... In the 80th and early 90th true legends
One of my favourite covers is Defleshed playing 'Radiation Sickness'. It can be found as a bonus song on their album 'Fast Forward'. The guitar sound is just massive on that recording. Perhaps do a Defleshed albums ranking.... ? :)
I was introduced to metal by my brother during this era. Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Fates Warning etc. So when he played Nuclear Assault for me and hyped them up, I assumed they were just as big as any of those bands.
I know we can’t go back in time, but there are so many bands I wish would have just stuck to their guns instead of “changing with the times”. It wasn’t as if Thrash was over saturated like hair metal. Everyone got so afraid of the success of Nirvana and moved away from what made them great in the first place. Great job with the album rankings!! Thank you 🙏
My personal list: 1 Handle With Care 2 Game Over (very hard decision) 3 Survive 4 Out of Order 5 Something Wicked 6 Third World Genocide If I have to consider the EPs 1 The Plague (Between Game Over and Survive) 2 Brain Death (Between Out of Order and Something Wicked) 3 Pounder (Maybe under TWG)
"Running through cities Not fearing their lives Never retreating before living eyes Burning in Hell is a small price to pay Now that my vengeance shall have its decay"
This was kinda before I got in to metal and like I was like 10 and I found one of there songs and I was like HOLY SHIT because I thought it was the heaviest thing ever although it didn’t get me into fully in to metal it for sure influenced me
I agree with your rankings almost 100%... I would put 'Survive' slightly over 'Game Over', but that's nitpicking I guess. Even though it's an E.P, I would rate 'The Plague' as #1.
Came across NA via Stormtroopers of Death with Dan L playing bass in that line up. They maybe sort of in the 2nd division of thrash bands but were excellent and ahead of there time with there slant on the environment. Was lucky to see them supporting Slayer on the South of Heaven tour in 1988 in Newport Wales. One of the best gigs I have every been to and in my top 10. Still listen to them now and was cycling along to Butt F from the plague EP while on Zwift the other day😂
Yup, I'd rank the albums the same lol. I do like Out of Order, but it has so much lost potential. I usually visit it after I've listened to the earlier records or sometimes I'll do a mix with some of the stronger songs.
1987 I hung with nuclear assault for 3 days! Up in Buena Park CA, as they stayed up at the house of the guitar player of phantasm. All thanks for me knowing katon pena of Hirax phantasm! Anyhow Dan liker is the best! Even paid for my food up at the mall!
Handle with Care is my personal favorite because it was my introduction to the band in 89. I listened to that cassette so much it broke on me. All of the first three records are classic though.
Such a unique sound we all thought when 'Game Over' came out. Just really disappointed that they didn't crank out more albums. When I reach for Nuclear Assault it's always from your top 3. I think I only listened to 3rd World Genocide 2-3 times, just never stuck with me, but I'll give it another spin.
@@RuthlessMetalYT : Honestly its too bad we couldn’t get together at some point - I think the discussion & story telling would be endless !!!…… keep up the great work Love your take on things 😎🎸🎸🎸
1 game over 2 handle with care 3 the plague something wicked this way comes . 4 survive 5 third world genocide 6 out of order 7 alive again. Nuclear assault great underrated thrash band. Overkill gets all the attention but I think Nuclear assault held their own against other thrash bands 🤘
Gotta remember....is east coast(new york style thrash)...like overkill..and anthrax....thrash more fun to play and faster drums....along with crazy hi pitch vocals(even belladonna crazy hi pitch voice in parts
I have to agree Game Over is their best. For me, although Survive and Handle were pretty good albums, they never topped their '86/'87 blaze of glory and times moved on and, for me anyway, such as Brutal Truth were just far more interesting and faster and heavier. Saw NA here in the UK back in '87 a couple of times and they were simply untouchable back then. But their star burned out fast... but that's not always a bad thing.
