The final day of Copenhell had us bouncing all over the genre spectrum. We had started out extremely deep in the folk metal corner, moved on over to the power metal universe, and now we were heading down the harsh street of old-school thrash metal. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we had arrived at the Pandæmonium stage, just in time for Nuclear Assault.

“Fuck yeah Copenhagen! How are you feeling? Hope you feel like 17 again, or negative 2, or whatever.”
- Dan Lilker (bass)

Sadly, the good sound we had experienced so far did not follow us to the Pandæmonium stage, and thus the speedy onslaught of Nuclear Assault was somewhat lost in a muddy mixture of instruments. This was regrettable, as the band actually put one hell of an effort into the show!
Frontman John Connelly, a short man, especially compared to the lanky figure of Dan Lilker next to him, was all that the band name promised – a full on blast of energy that nothing could stand against! The rest of the guys were good as well, no doubt about that, but not on par with this little energy bomb. He was funny as well, making some amusing comments between some of the songs.

We weren’t the only ones on genre bouncing trip to thrash town. In fact, Nuclear Assault had managed to pull quite an impressive crowd over to the smallest stage of the festival. I’m guessing all those old-school fans who doesn’t recognise anything recorded after 1989 as actual music (you know the ones I mean), were only too happy to stay true here, instead of visiting the modern neck-tattoo metal band Asking Alexandria who played the Hades stage at roughly the same time.
Cheap shots aside, Nuclear Assault delivered, and the people received. And gave back. The unimaginatively titled New Song saw quite a moshpit, even though headbanging and raised fists were the most common attributes for this show.

Yes, the crowd was well entertained by Nuclear Assault, there was no doubt about it. I however, was not as gripped by the show as those around me. I believe this was mainly due to the fact that I didn’t get a feeling for their music, because they did everything right in delivering a performance.

Setlist:

Rise From The Ashes
Brainwashed
New Song
Critical Mass
Game Over
Butt Fuck
Pounder
Sin
Betrayal
Analogue Man In A Digital World
Died In Your Arms
F# (Wake Up)
When Freedom Dies
My America / Hang The Pope / Lesbians
Trail Of Tears