NUCLEAR ASSAULT — Out of Order (review)

NUCLEAR ASSAULT — Out of Order album cover Album · 1991 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Out of Order" is the 4th full-length studio album by US thrash metal act Nuclear Assault. The album was released through I.R.S. Records in September 1991. It´s the successor to "Handle With Care" from 1989. While Nuclear Assault weren´t the most commercially successful thrash metal act of their time, "Survive (1988)" and "Handle With Care (1989)" both earned them a strong following and the late 80s are probably considered their peak by most listeners. By 1991 the thrash metal scene was in decline, but Nuclear Assault soldiered on. The lineup who recorded "Handle With Care (1989)" is intact: John Connelly (vocals, guitars), Anthony Bramante (guitars, backing vocals), Dan Lilker (bass, backing vocals), and Glenn Evans (drums, percussion, backing vocals).

"Out of Order" opens pretty strong with "Sign in Blood", and "Fashion Junkie" and "Too Young to Die" are also decent tracks, but from there the quality of the material on the 11 track, 46:02 minutes long album drops. It´s not horrible low standards or anything like that, and Nuclear Assault are still a force to be reckoned with, but stylistically the album comes off fragmented and a bit directionless. It´s thrash metal metal done the Nuclear Assault way, although their previous crossover influences aren´t heard much on this album.

It´s still audible that Nuclear Assault are skilled musicians and John Connelly´s distinct sounding voice is as piercing and raw as ever, so the choice to let the other three guys in the band sing lead vocals on a couple of tracks is not a good one. None of those guys have voices which are especially distinct sounding, and the vocal parts on those tracks end up sounding slightly amateurish in comparison to the tracks where Connelly sings. From the outside it could look like a band with inner power struggles and a band who had run out of ideas, and desperately were trying to do something different to keep the flame alive. The uninspired cover of "Ballroom Blitz" by Sweet doesn´t really help on the positive impression of the album.

It´s a bit of a shame really, because the songwriting on the best tracks on the album show great maturity and development since the predecessor, and the sound production is professional, clear, and powerful. So "Out of Order" features a lot of great things too (I could mention a load of really well played guitar solos as one more great feature), but as described above also quite a few features dragging the album down. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.
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