The Chilean entry into the thrash marathon, Nuclear (keep on wanting to type “Blast” next to their name) have been kicking around since 2003. The deep A&R claws of Candlelight was able to snatch this quintet up for the release of Formula for Anarchy, the band’s fourth album, and first in five years. While stylistically, there’s nothing new in which to work with, the band’s steady adherence to all of the norms that accompany thrash is encouraging, particularly their penchant for Slayer solos of the Divine Intervention style. Such an underrated album…
Ten songs here, barely clocking in under 30 minutes. Obviously, that’s means all of these tunes are in and out, with vocalist Matías Leonicio engaged in a rangy Araya-like bark, belting across the place about the ills of politics and government power. Novel topics for thrash; at least they’re not signing about nuclear war, which would probably hit too close to home for their name. There’s the occasional tempo modification going on, where upon a trademark thrash groove gets going, but for the most part, the blitzkrieg of “Scam 38” and “Waging War” seem to work quite well, thank you very much.
Since these gents are from Chile and not a lot of popularized metal comes from said country, there’s your angle in which to work. Even with that, Nuclear manage to make an impact with heads-down, full-throttle thrash that when it wants to mix it up (see the excellent beginning to “Killing Spree,” maybe the best song Gary Holt never wrote), manages to fare pretty well for itself. And as we noted above, thrash keeps going. For some odd reason, it won’t die off. Probably because of bands like Nuclear.