Nuclear Death - Carrion for Worm (1991)

Most of this album straight up sucks, as does the bulk of Nuclear Death's creative output. Who knows? Maybe it's really not that bad but that remains to be heard as the recording quality of most of their shit (especially their earlier material) is barely audible.

Having got that out of the way, I will say that there are two tracks that really stand out for me. Two tracks that make me realize just how much of a tragedy the rest of this album truly is, and they are 'Green Flies' and 'Vampirism'. Sure, all of the 'OSDM' fanatics will cream their Levi's when they learn that the gay pirate himself, Chris Reifert, lends his cock wrought rasp to the proceedings. Nah, trust me, I could give a fuck less about all that and besides, by the time he shows up, the best part of the song is already over. Nonetheless, the  beginning riff sequence of 'Vampirism' is one of the most hauntingly eerie passages I've ever had the pleasure to experience, not to mention that it's downright one of the most evil licks you'll ever come across. Unfortunately, the band's collective ADHD kicks in and it's back to the full on blast retardation that permeates just about the entire album, except for of course, 'Green Flies', which is the other 'ultra-skeevy-yet chill' riff fest to rear its sore ridden cabeza from out of the radioactive darkness.

The vocals of Lori Bravo are a totally mixed bag as at times she sounds quite evil and demented and others just downright goofy, particularly during the faster, blast ridden sections. Echoes are put to astonishing use such as the first verse or so in 'Green Flies' making the vocals sound particularly cruel and wicked, reminding me of what, perhaps, the Nazgul from the Rankin/Bass animated rendition of The Return of the King would sound like aside from the occasional pterodactyl-like shriek.

The lyrics, for the most part, are just plain, downright stupid...bizarre, but stupid. I guess because of the absolutely weirdo fucking nature of the lyrics I can sort of look past some of the blatant idiocy abound in each track. Here's an excerpt from 'Green Flies'...

"Sometimes my friend finds me atop a corpse...

  and he threatens to take away my hardness...

  ...but then he shows me his hardness and we are friends again"

As lame as those lyrics are I just can't shake the skeeviness they exude. The fact that they are sung by a female probably makes it even more fucking skeevy.

Aside from the two tracks that I mentioned, this is hardly a masterpiece, regardless of what the "OSDM" dweebs over on Facebook tell ya. If anything can be said in the bands favor, they were one of the earliest to incorporate blasts into their compositions, though that's hardly a selling point for me as I've always pretty slowness and heaviness in my death metal as opposed to the all consuming mantra of "speed for the sake of speed". Unless you've got a hankering to listen to a wrestling match inside of a kitchen full of pots and pans, I'd advise you to steer clear. Again, the only two songs worth anything are 'Green Flies' and 'Vampirism' as there is a shit ton of grody atmosphere to raise the hairs on your arms and send shivers up your spine. I wish that the band had churned out a few more tracks like these and concentrated more on creepy atmospherics as opposed to constant blasting, but oh well.