Review by Vladimir on March 29, 2024.

When it comes down to checking out war metal releases, I am all in, whatever it may be, a demo, an EP, an album or perhaps a compilation. Well, luckily today we are taking a look at the Canadian band Nuclearhammer with their compilation War Chronicles: A History Of Obliteration (2006-2017), originally released on October 22nd, 2018 and re-released on June 5th, 2022 via Demented Omen Of Masochism.

The entire War Chronicles compilation is consisted of the band’s past materials, ranging from demos to rehearsal demos and even live recordings between 2006 and 2017. All of them showcase the signature bestial black/death metal, aka war metal, in the style of Blasphemy, Beherit, Revenge, Archgoat and Conqueror, incorporating the same sort of lyrical concepts such as occultism, satanism, desecration and other blasphemous subjects. Throughout these various time periods, the band’s style remains consistent and intact, without breaking away from the established sound and direction that they’ve been going with for the last decade. Along the way, there are a couple of covers to be found, ranging from various extreme metal acts such as Blasphemy, Katharsis, Repulsion, Sarcofago and Inquisition.

Now that I’ve got the basics out of the way, let’s talk about how I feel about this compilation as a whole. Personally, I really don’t like it, because most of the time you can’t exactly hear what the band is playing at all due to it all being poorly recorded demos that make it all sound like noise. I tried so hard to figure out what the hell they are doing, but it just comes off as very “ear pulsing” and “torturing” to the point where I just had to skip tracks in order to find anything remotely listenable. Luckily it does come to happen at some point during the second half when recordings sound decent and acceptable, but until then I completely stop caring whether it was good or not because I felt like I was close to being deaf. The worst part about this compilation is that it is an hour and a half long, basically as if you are given a completely certified torture chamber treatment where you are certain to end up with a hearing loss when it’s all over. I am most certain that despite the poor sound quality, the music and the overall performance isn't really that bad, just underwhelmed by the poor execution as a whole. Had all the songs on this compilation been re-recorded, they would have definitely made this totally worth the while, but sadly it comes off as a really wasted potential that could have easily attracted new listeners had they stumbled upon this compilation of early materials first-hand before diving in to check out their two full-length albums.

If you ask me, this entire compilation basically makes grindcore look like a goddamn classical music piece, because for fuck’s sake, this was painful. I don’t really mind war metal demos, because I truly love examples like "Blood Upon The Altar" and "At The Devil's Studio 1990", but whatever Nuclearhammer put out is just nothing but incomprehensible and unintelligible in every aspect. Simply put, EAR BLEEDING NOISE! In the end, after desperate attempts and trying my best to find anything worth checking out here, I have to say, it’s not worth the while.

Rating: 5 out of 10

Review by Felix on February 2, 2020.

Nocturnal’s Storming Evil was a killer album and so I was glad to hear that a new output has seen the light of day. Well, one new track and a cover of “Invincible Force” – that’s not much, right? Of course, I know all these wonderful arguments like “this is our "Reign in Blood" 7-inch” or “quality beats quantity”. That’s correct, but great quality and appropriate quantity would have been a good idea as well. Anyhow, the new song “Preventive War” sounds like a strong leftover of their full-length from 2014. Jagged, sharp riffs, light speed and (now comes the difference) a new male vocalist. Pino, lead vocalist of Witchburner (will these dudes ever record a new album?), lends the song his voice and his performance meets the expectations in a convincing manner. “Invincible Force” cannot keep up with the original. Okay, this might be a matter of course, but this version really lacks power and the sound is subject to fluctuations. There is only good thing I can say about this version. Nocturnal do not hide the fact that they play a cover – and this distinguishes them from their comrades called Nuctemeron...

…because the stylistically very well comparable dudes from Saxony present a song called “Eternal Proscription” as their own, but there is a lot of “Crionics” in it. Okay, after two millions of thrash metal songs it might be that some similarities are inevitable, but I thought that Slayer’s debut is well known and to copy one of its parts note by note is either an act of worship or pure audacity. By the way, this dubious action was pretty unnecessary in view of the indisputable potential Nuctemeron shows here. As mentioned before, their songs lie in close proximity to those of their split vinyl partners and this means that a sinister aura meets diabolic nagging, slicing guitars and rumbling yet propelling drums. Both tracks make clear that the German underground is not at risk to dry out. Moreover, it seems as if black thrash metal is never getting old, even if Nocturnal do not reach their top form this time. Nevertheless, the vinyl with the double artwork, both in the vein of old school demos, is recommendable.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10