Album Review: Nuclear Warfare - All Hail to the Liberator
Reviewed by Gareth Pugh
German veteran thrashers Nuclear Warfare have stealthily dropped their seventh album “All Hail to the Liberator”, almost six years after the well-received “Lobotomy” back in 2020. If you like your thrash old school then this is the place to visit, as this is what these guys have been doing for the last 22 years, no frills traditional Teutonic thrash with a hint of the Bay Area, tweaked slightly with each release for maximum impact, and with a stable lineup of Fritz (bass/vocals), Seb (Guitars), and drummer Alexandre established since 2014, the band is a well-oiled machine.
Opening with the bruising ‘Nuclear War’, a subject that is perhaps a bit too close to the mark in these strange times, the band gets straight down to business right from the kick off, no fancy acoustic intros or anything like that, just bang, straight into the fray with some flat-out, full speed, catchy thrash. The riff is a twisting ear worm, technically excellent and yet sounds brutally simple, while the chorus sticks like chewing gum to the sole of your shoe. ‘Rough Day’ and ‘United by Thrash’ are a bit more playful, both with lots of fast riffage and plenty of hooks, and the guitar is both razor sharp and yet bludgeoning.
‘With Sword and Cross’ is the albums centrepiece, with more mature songwriting and is a spawling 7-minute epic, with slower chunky chord work and more melody than we’ve come to expect, but don’t worry if slower isn’t your thing, as ‘The Stricker’ soon ups the tempo once more and ‘Trouble in the World’ is more of the same with its chunky, galloping structure. ‘What I Really Can’ has a fantastic escalating arrangement with some cool curveballs from the guitar and vocals to make it really standout The album finishes with the title track which is full of relentless riffs and an interesting ‘woooaa oohh ohho’ refrain towards the end, which took me by surprise on first listen but it works surprisingly well, and ends the album on a high.
The band returned once more to Brazil to record and produce the album, this time at Dual Noise Studios in Sao Paulo under the excellent stewardship of Rogério Wecko who has given the album a powerful, classic sound whilst leaving enough grit for it not to sound too polished and modern sounding. “All Hail to the Liberator” is a welcome return from the German trio, the band know they aren’t reinventing the wheel here, and it won’t be in many top 10 albums of the year lists, but what they do they do extremely well, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and if you’re desperate for a new Sodom or Destruction album then this just might scratch that itch while you’re waiting.
