Game Over

By the time they recorded their first album, Game Over, the members of Nuclear Assault were already seasoned veterans of the N.Y.C. thrash metal community -- and it showed. Their songwriting and overall vision might still have been lacking a few components, but at least their performance and execution revealed a remarkably tight unit. A couple of generic, satanic thrash metal lyrics ("Sin," "Stranded in Hell") notwithstanding, the band's paranoid fixation on nuclear warfare ("Radiation Sickness," "After the Holocaust") and interest in politics and social issues ("My America") are evident from the get-go. And while these headbanging highlights gave the kids something to think about, the brilliantly hilarious "Hang the Pope" (which would fit perfectly into any South Park episode) gave them something to laugh at as well. Finally, after the unrelenting beating imposed by the group's frenzied pace, the slightly more restrained "Brain Death" closes the album in fine fashion, and may have been its best song were it not for three or four mostly disposable minutes of endless riffing.