To my surprise, Polish quartet Nuclear Holocaust is the only active metal band with that name. Looking at their logo and name, I was expecting some thrash metal, but nope, they offer some grindcore with death metal influences.

'The Book of Doom' includes 8 new songs (recorded in 2019), plus 8 pieces (recorded in 2017) from their previous release, split with Expurgo (Brazil). While the vibes vary, the songwriting model is similar. All 23 minutes to midnight...

The band mixes grindcore and hardcore things together. Tempos go from blastbeats to D-beats, and riffing varies from fast tremolo picking to punk/hardcore styles. This is listenable, if you're willing to accept adequate guitar riffs, driving beats and noise, that feels pretty much okay while listening, but won't leave memory marks. That's the band's biggest deficiency. The vocals vary from death growls to hardcore throat lacerations, vomiting and barking.

New recordings sound way more demo-ish with their blunt and fuzzy, albeit heavier, sound, when compared to more open and biting split release songs. The older material is somewhat more extensive, while the new songs are much more no-frills, sadly. While the artwork is rather cool, there's no printed lyrics, which one would need to understand a fucking word.

At best this is close to Nasum for example, and their groovy yet pulverizing 'Helvete' album (2003), and 'LSW of Death' has some Napalm Death influences from their lovely 'Fear, Emptiness, Despair' era (1994). At worst it doesn't much but serve as a quick yet almost vacuous aggression discharge. And do not expect anything new and groundbreaking here... Anyway, do not take this one on roadtrip with you, you might end up in jail for reckless driving!

New material gets 5/10 and old stuff 7/10, so the final score is around 666... Sorry, the "6" key got stuck!

Rating: 6 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
08/16/2020 19:30