The main reason for going to this gig was Nuclear Assault. I’d had a couple of Testament and Death Angel albums years before, but I hadn’t heard them for ages. Nuclear Assault though, I’d seen 15 or so years previously, I had all their stuff and they had been a much bigger part of my life. Fuck me what a disappointment. Singer, guitarist, front man John Connelly was an utter disgrace – pissed out of his head and all over the place, and it sounded like thir man on the sound desk was also pissed (and wearing boxing gloves), or they had blown half the PA during the sound check. Actually, it was probably both, come to think of it. It almost brought a tear to my eye to witness such a shambles. I think even Dan Lilker was cringeing at how bad it was. Very poor.
But hoo-fucking-rah for Death Angel, talk about saving the day, eh? They were bloody brilliant. Seriously tight and had clearly been getting better and better since the good old days, rather than self-destructing in a wash of Jack Daniels. Amazing sound, (so clearly Nuclear Assault had been even worse than I had given them credit for). Death Angel was totally how thrash metal should be played. Simply must get the new album, darlings. Testament were not as good – I never liked Chuck Billy’s gruff voice, and they were not in the same league as Death Angel. Not at all bad though.
one louder 
Great post man. I saw Nuclear Assault that same year in Houston and was similarly disappointed. Still love ’em though. I’ve attached a link to a metal blogcast a friend and I are doing. Check it out if you’d like. The site itself also has a fair amount of metal content.
Horns Up!
Nice work! great blogcast. I’ve not heard of Crystalic, but will definitely investigate further. I very much doubt if they’ll ever come to NZ though…
Yeah Death Angel absoulutely nailed it.. I never liked N A and they were useless.
I was at this show too. Pretty appalling performance by Nuclear Assault. I saw them a couple of years later and mentioned it to Connelly as we had a chat at the bar, and he acknowledged it was bad but said one bad gig in nearly 20 years ain’t bad going right? And you know what, he’s right – I’ve probably seen NA maybe 15 – 20 times over the years and that was really the only bad show, so I forgave him. I did tell him he looked like a knobhead though with his hair all tucked up inside his hat, and he laughed. A bit.
That show was a bit baffling, because as a die hard thrasher I had never even heard of Marduk before, and I didn’t quite know what to make of them. But over the years I’ve come to really like them and ended up seeing them quite a few times.