The Plague

After the solid debut of "Game Over", Nuclear Assault really hit their stride with this EP. A far superior production was one reason this EP hit even harder than its longplaying predecessor, with honest to goodness low end lending a knockout punch sonically. The bass is clear and resonant and the guitar sound is much thicker and meatier, with a booming drum sound, making the songs on hand here that much more hurtful.

The songs, that's right, the songs. And a nicely short and (not so sweet) batch of steaming thrash metal with razor-sharp riffing they are. "Game Over" leads things off with a powerful mid tempo instrumental and Glenn Evans poundig the tar out of his drums. This has a great headbanging feel to it. Their punk influence comes out to play on "Justice" in particular, with the thundering drums and screaming guitar leads grabbing your ear between verses and choruses as well as the cynical, socially-aware lyrics. The title track was a rarity for them at the time, a slow and churning number with a great feeling of impending doom and apocalyptic dread in line with the then-emerging threat of AIDS. "Cross Of Iron" shreds hard with an unrelenting assault and more socially themed lyrics having to do with the loss of individual rights, a common theme from John Connoly's pen. And their trademark loony humor is in evidence as well with "Butt Fuck", which I think is rather funny, myself. The middle bit is hilarious and still makes me laugh even all these years after its release. Unlike future releases where the humor became forced and uninspired, this is actually laugh out loud funny.

In short, this is, IMO anyway, NA's shining moment in the spotlight. Even though "Survive!" was a damn good album, it didn't have quite the same power and intensity as this EP did. And its production didn't have the same impact as this EP did. So I do highly recommend you seek this out. "Game Over" is a good strong debut album, but this was NA at their strongest.