Road Reports Archive

Nuclear Assault
Brooklyn Music Terminal . New York, USA

To prove that Thrash Metal has not died the guys in the Legendary Nuclear Assault have returned to let you know in the only manner that they know how. Tonight would be the second time that I have attended the Brooklyn Music Terminal in about a one week timeframe and this was the perfect venue for the group. In their heyday they were often mainstays at the original L’Amour and most of the guys were neighborhood musicians. Nuclear Assault would be promoting and showcasing some new material from their upcoming release “Third World Genocide” which comes to us courtesy of SPV Records and this will be the bands first release in over 10 years. I admitted a little bit of surprise in the fact that Anthony Bramante (the bands original guitarist) had not come back by this time. I felt that with so many bands reuniting and doing recordings and touring it made me almost expect to see it happen. On “Third World Genocide” guitarist Eric Burke handles the shredding but at this show we would have Karl Cochran handling the duties. Karl is no stranger to performance and has played with Ace Frehley and Joe Lynn Turner. He was excellent at pulling off all of the riffs with relative ease.

Singer/Guitarist John Connolly was the energetic front man I had remembered, his screams into the microphone only compounded by his equally fierce guitar shredding. Glen Evans is still a very powerful drummer and Dan Lilker is still doing what he does best on the bass. I was never a major follower of the group but clearly they had an impact that is still felt to this day in the world of Metal. One of the interesting things I saw that night was when John started to clear a section in the audience for his mic stand. He then climbed down and began to play with the audience right up in his face. Some people were helping him along in the song (not that he needed it of course) and he just continued along. There was also a segment on stage when someone jumped up and sang instead of John. He seemed to enjoy having this level of support from the crowd. On that end I have to say that I was a little disappointed in the attendance this evening for a couple of reasons. The first is that this is a new Metal club in an area where it is sorely needed once again and the second because this was a good venue to see this classic Thrash Metal band. However, everyone who did make it to this show was a die-hard fan and I remember speaking to one of them who said to me that he was banging his head so hard that after the show he felt that the very ground he walked on was shaking. I was not able to capture the entire set list, but did snare a handful of numbers from the crowd and they are listed below for you. The group played almost two hours and that is a long time to be head banging. The audience though intimate, certainly got their money’s worth. I wish the band success on the release of their new album.

Set List (Incomplete):

1. Critical Mass
2. Sin
3. Cold Steel
4. Rise From The Ashes
5. Fight To Be Free
6. Equal Rights
7. To Serve Man
8. Madness Descends
9. Brain Death



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