Nuclear Monsters

Photo by Craig Kamrath

Most of you reading this won’t remember the hardcore/thrash “crossover” scene of the mid-80s first hand. Only a small clutch of bands were truly involved such as Hirax, Nuclear Assault, The Accused, D.R.I. and Corrosion of Conformity to name a few. The genre basically involved the heaviness of metal being played with the speed and aesthetic of punk and hardcore by largely suburban kids who were into skating and beer. They did that whole bandana and cut-off shorts thing and watched a lot of sitcoms and gore movies. Young upstarts Municipal Waste recently released an instant crossover thrash classic called Hazardous Mutation and have managed to perfectly capture the spirit of that age without having actually been there. Vice: Horror has always been a big influence on metal beginning with Black Sabbath whose entire schtick was based on things like 60s Hammer House of Horror and writers like H.P. Lovecraft and Dennis Wheatley. Then there’s death metal, an entire genre inspired by the zombie and gore films of the 70s and 80s. The thrash and crossover scenes of the mid-80s seemed to have a more contemporary edge, more nuclear holocaust than spooky castle. Would you agree? Tony Foresta (vocals): Damn. I never really thought about it that hard. Yeah I would definitely agree with you though. Movies play a big part in inspiring us to write. We love singing about nuclear monsters and shit. Your album art reminds me of C.H.U.D. meets Def Con 4. Actually C.H.U.D. 2: Bud the C.H.U.D. is what truly inspires Municipal Waste song writing. We’re into more stupid horror like Leprechaun In The Hood and over the top gore shit like Dead Alive. What are some of your favourite horror soundtracks? Anything by Goblin and the Return Of The Living Dead soundtrack are pretty much the shit. Can you see dead people?   No, but we see shitloads of drunk people all over the place, especially at our shows, they rule! Do you agree that Land of the Dead is a piece of shit? No, it’s most certainly a movie, also known as a “moving picture”.   Why is it so difficult for directors to pull off good horror these days? It’s kinda the same thing going on with metal. It seems that people are surrounded by crappy movies and music so much that the only thing that most people are inspired by is, well, crap. NATHAN BENNETT
Hazardous Mutation is out now on Earache. Municipal Waste are on tour in the UK right now as you read this. If you miss them, you deserve total annihilation in a toxic combat zone of hate. Check www.earache.com for the dates.