UMUR "...For Our Dead..." is an EP release by US grindcore act Nuclear Death. The EP was released through Wild Rag Records in 1992. It follows the release of the band´s third full-length studio album "All Creatures Great and Eaten" from earlier the same year. Re-issues of "All Creatures Great and Eaten (1992)" feature the four tracks from "...For Our Dead..." as bonus material, which is probably the easiest way of getting access to the tracks.

Stylistically the material on "...For Our Dead..." could also well have been recorded during the same sessions as the material on "All Creatures Great and Eaten (1992)" in terms of sound and style. It´s filthy, noisy, and raw grindcore with gore lyrics, delivered in an organic and authentic fashion. The sound production is suitably lo-fi and murky and this is a release which wins on savage gloomy atmoshere rather than on technical details and polished production values. It feels like been dragged screaming to the darkest depths of hell by an aggressive growling beast. That beast being lead vocalist/bassist Lori Bravo who has one of the most aggressive and intensely hateful vocal styles on the scene. The instrumental part of the music is also quite extreme and occasionally pretty interesting in the way the guitar riffs are constructed and in the way the drums are played. It´s definitely music with a few unconventional twists and turns.

"...For Our Dead..." is a short release featuring only 4 tracks and a full playing time of 9:04 minutes, but with music this extreme a shorter and more intense listening experience is sometimes preferable to what can often become a tedious monotonous experience when having to sit through 30 noisy and one-dimensional grindcore tracks. Nuclear Death always understood that quality is more important than quantity and "...For Our Dead..." is another example of that.

So upon conclusion the short EP is a high quality grindcore release. It´s meant for an audience who prefer their grindcore filthy, gory, noisy, murky, and savage to the bone, and if that´s your poison "...For Our Dead..." is a mandatory listen from one of the seminal artists in the genre. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "All Creatures Great and Eaten" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US grindcore act Nuclear Death. The album was released through CATS' MEOW Records in 1992. It´s the successor to "Carrion for Worm" from 1991 and features an important lineup change as guitarist and one of the founders of the band Phil Hampson has left. Therefore Lori Bravo performs both vocals, guitars, and bass and the album. Joel Whitfield is still the drummer of Nuclear Death on this release. Nuclear Death are a legendary act on the 80s/early 90s US extreme metal scene, and although they never reached anything beyond underground fame and cult status, they are widely regarded as a very influential band on the most extreme part of the 80s/early 90s US extreme metal scene (not completely unlike the status of contemporary artists like Repulsion and Filthy Christians).

Both their early demos and the two studio albums "Bride of Insect (1990)" and "Carrion for Worm (1991)" are among the most filthy, noisy, and lyrically depraved extreme metal releases from those days, and "All Creatures Great and Eaten" follows the same extreme path as its two predecessors. Led by the brutal, intelligible, and über aggressive vocals of Lori Bravo, this is a release which will tear the flesh from your bones and leave you dying in a ditch. Filthy, perverted, noisy, and beyond raw, Nuclear Death are the real deal, when it comes to primal aggression and goregrind nastiness.

"All Creatures Great and Eaten" features 8 tracks and a full playing time of 20:39 minutes, so it´s the kind of release which is almost over before it began. With music this extreme a short playing time is sometimes called for though. Not that the music on this type of release is necessarily of a bad quality, but because the human ear and brain can sometimes have a hard time processing something this extreme for longer periods of time. When that is said there is more variation on "All Creatures Great and Eaten" than on any of the band´s preceding releases. Not that it´s a particularly varied release overall, but it´s still great when the band opt to add some filthy sludgy slow parts to their otwerwise blasting deathgrind tracks. There´s a twisted and dark almost psychadelic touch to some sections, which is pretty intriguing too.

The sound production is murky, raw, and unpolished, and often sounds like it was recorded live in someone´s garage. The production suits the rawness of the music perfectly though, and a more polished sound production probably wouldn´t have suited the material that well. The drums sometimes drown in the noise when the band play really fast, and the guitar tone is so fuzzy and distorted, that the details of the riffs are often blurred, but it´s a great sound for this particular type of music. Bravo´s vocals are placed relatively high in the mix and to great effect. The intensity and passion of her vocal performance is perfectly displayed.

Upon conclusion "All Creatures Great and Eaten" is a beast of a dark and filthy goregrind/death metal album. Nuclear Death have a unique sound, which makes them stand out on the scene and they understand the importance of delivering their music with an organic human touch, which provide their material with a dark chaotic edge. The twisted lyrical perversion and the fact that those perversions are delivered by a woman are also intriguing and quite unconventional elements of the band´s sound. A vile and filthy 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Carrion for Worm" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US grindcore act Nuclear Death. The album was released through Wild Rags Records in June 1991. Nuclear Death were notoriously know in the "underground" for their savage live shows and because they were one of the first (if not THE first) grindcore act to feature a female lead vocalist in Lori Bravo. The band formed in 1986 and released several demos before releasing their debut full-length studio album "Bride of Insect (1990)". Their most "famous" release from those years are the "Caveat (1989)" demo compilation, which features tracks from the "Welcome to the Minds of the Morbid (1987)" demo and the "Vultures Feeding (1988)" demo.

While there are many extreme grindcore albums out there, "Bride of Insect (1990)" is one of the grindcore albums from that time, that set the standards for how extreme, noisy, and vile grindcore can really get. That tendency is continued and even developed further upon on "Carrion for Worm", which if possible is an even more noisy, extreme, and murky sounding grindcore album featuring vile and gory lyrics and imagery.

While the sound production on the predecessor was raw and lo-fi, the sound on "Carrion for Worm" takes it a step further into murky darkness. At times it´s almost impossible to hear what´s being played and you can just hear a drummer blasting away over something that sounds like an über distorted combination of guitars and bass. There is next to no audible structure when the band play fast, and that´s what they do almost all the way through the 12 tracks on the 26:12 minutes long album. When they lower the speed to a heavy mid-paced tempo like they do on "Greenflies", it´s easier to hear what´s going on, but it´s still filthy and raw as hell.

Lori Bravo is a passionate and convincing extreme metal vocalist and while her performance here isn´t quite as intriguing as it was on the predecessor, she still spits out vile aggresssive growling like there´s no tomorrow. The performances are generally organic and raw, and it more or less sounds like someone came by and recorded a rehearsal session at the band´s practice room. So there is a raw live atmosphere to the recording.

Overall "Carrion for Worm" is just a very, very extreme metal album, which in my world is a great thing, but the murky sound production and the general lack of variation between tracks and even within tracks isn´t doing the album any favours. I think I could have lived with the raw and lo-fi sound production if the material had been more varied, but as it is, "Carrion for Worm" is a bit of a trial to get through in one sitting, so a 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.

UMUR "Bride of Insect" is the debut full-length studio album by US grindcore act Nuclear Death. The album was released through Wild Rags Records in 1990. Nuclear Death were notoriously know in the "underground" for their savage live shows and because they were one of the first (if not THE first) grindcore act to feature a female lead vocalist in Lori Bravo. The band formed in 1986 and released several demos before releasing "Bride of Insect". Their most "famous" release from those years are the "Caveat (1989)" demo compilation, which features tracks from the "Welcome to the Minds of the Morbid (1987)" demo and the "Vultures Feeding (1988)" demo.

"Bride of Insect" is in the beastly and noisy end of the grindcore spectrum. in fact the sound production is so raw and lo-fi that the guitar riffs are almost completely drowned all the way through the album. There´s a buzzing sound somewhere that you can recognize as a guitar, but very seldom are you able to hear what´s going on. The drums blast away and the bass rumbles somewhere in the mix too. Much focus is on the vocals by Lori Bravo and boy does she deliver...

Her vocal performance on this album is probably one of the strongest extreme vocal performances I´ve heard from a woman. Highly aggressive, sneering, growling and just filthy to the bone. Bravo takes no prisoners and few will be left standing when she is done with them. Damn scary lady this one. The lyrics and imagery are in the goregrind catagory which is of course obvious from looking at the cover artwork but song-titles like "Necrobestiality", "Corpse of Allegiance" and "The Beloved Whore Celebration" should give it away too.

...while the lo-fi sound production is noisy, raw and filthy it actually suits the music pretty well. It´s one of those rare cases where such a production is a means to an end. It´s almost unbearable at times, but the key word here is "almost". A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.