Nuclear
Jehovirus

January 2011
Released: 2010, Sick Bangers / Australis Records
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

The Chilean Metal scene is something that one cannot ignore completely nowadays, even if I do admit that I haven´t been following it for some years that closely. The country has plenty of good metal bands that have jumped out from the South American shores into the international awareness over the decades. Such Chilean band names as Pentagram, Atomic Aggressor, Sadism, Totten Korps, Coprofago, Necrosis, Criminal, Vastator and many others, are surely familiar to many of us. Also Nuclear, coming from a seaport called Arica, has a long history behind them. The band has been around since 1998 and has recorded 3 full-length studio albums so far, of which their latest output carries the name JEHOVIRUS.



On JEHOVIRUS Nuclear aren´t re-writing or re-bending the steel for Thrash Metal again, but placing respectfully their very own spoons into the 80´s era of dense Thrash soup; the era when bands like Metallica and Slayer pretty much wrote the textbooks of this very genre for the worldwide mass acceptance and success.



And speaking of those two big icons of Thrash Metal, it comes very clear from the first serious thrown notes on Nuclear´s latest record that the whole album is more like a fair tribute from these Chilean fellows to go back to the deep traces that both Metallica and Slayer left for the later metal generation to be chewed on. Some of you may automatically think Nuclear is yet another so-called wannabe act in the ever-growing line of new Thrash bands that have realized how easy it is actually jump into this retro-Thrash bandwagon, and probably even cause a fair stir amongst the Metal fans worldwide. Well, without reasoning too much Nuclear´s motivations that in-depth and accurately, I must admit I really love this record quite much. Matías Leovicio on vocals sounds like Tom Araya at one time, then he does his Chuck Billy growls at one moment – and even Mille Petrozza flits in my mind every now and then when his voice is set for Mille-ish mood on this fiercely storming Thrash release. There´s naturally both Hetfield-Hammett and Hanneman-King schools strongly involved within the piecing shredding style of guitarists Francisco and Sebastian – both fellows jerking off very similar riffs that the aforementioned guitar duos have churned out from their 6-stringers for the last 3 decades. The whole album reeks very shamelessly of Metallica´s and Slayer´s most precious and golden moments when it comes to the past material of both bands in question. Odd or not, but I cannot see anything wrong at their copycatting of both Metallica´s and especially Slayer´s past times, but rather would like to credit them for doing so.



JEHOVIRUS is a pleasingly solid tribute to Nuclear´s two very obvious Thrash heroes – and they can sincerely be proud of this record rather than hiding their heads into bushes ashamed.