Nuclear Death- Carrion For Worm (1991)

Arizona’s Nuclear Death stand a good contender for being the strangest, most extreme and altogether most bizarre death metal band ever. They had in their ranks a female bassist/vocalist (Lori Bravo) who possessed one of the most otherworldly styles in the genre. Alternately growling and passionately shrieking, she brings a unique manner to the band’s lyrics. Oh yeah, about those lyrics. They are sick…really sick. Not sick in a gore sense, but in a personal and demented sense. Thank guitarist Phil Hampson for this, as his literate, poetic and singular view of all things living as debased garbage makes this band’s poetics both revolting in theme but compelling in their delivery. Sex with dead animals, cannibalism on one’s deceased family members, transsexual vampirism, homosexual necrophilia, heroin addiction and a fascination with decay are all visited. It’s also hard to describe the band’s sound, as their records are often poorly balanced, creating a sound that comes across as a mush of indistinct yet carefully penned arrangements. Doomy breakdowns give way to grindcore velocity, but the guitars remain a wash of static, underpinned by Bravo’s grave utterances. Imagine Autopsy at their most warped, and you’ll get the idea of where this band’s essence begins. The drums are nice and booming, which on the slower tracks like “Greenflies” adds clarity. But the Nuclear Death sound is not built on an easy digestion of its contents. Death metal this perverse is best delivered in the sonically obscure form the band use here. For me, this is the most sustained work of depravity they’d invent. Their debut Bride Of Insect is equally disturbing sound wise though less diverse, but the lyrics are slightly less warped. Slight future work emerged, the band moving even further underground following membership hassles. But for those of you who tire of the paradox of clearly produced, precise and sterile death metal, Nuclear Death is the clear antithesis. I’m not saying you’ll like them (it took many, many spins on my part before I “got” their approach) but I can’t imagine death metal more aptly deserving of unimpeachable entry into its particular genre.