NUCLEAR DEATH — All Creatures Great and Eaten (review)

NUCLEAR DEATH — All Creatures Great and Eaten album cover

Album · 1992 · Grindcore

4/5 · 2021-02-01
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.