Group
Nuclear Assault
- From
- Queens, United States
- Active
- 1985–2022
- Rating
- ★ 5
- Releases
- 22
- thrash metal
- crossover thrash
- heavy metal
- metal
- speed metal
About
Nuclear Assault was an American thrash metal band formed in New York City in 1984. Part of the mid-to-late 1980s thrash metal movement, they were one of the main bands of the genre to emerge from the East Coast, along with Overkill, Whiplash, Toxik, Carnivore, and Anthrax, the last of which was co-founded by Nuclear Assault bassist Dan Lilker, who had been fired from Anthrax shortly after the release of their first album. Nuclear Assault released five full-length albums and toured relentlessly throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, and broke up in 1995. The band reunited briefly in 1997, and permanently from 2001 to 2008 and again from 2011 to 2022.
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Nuclear Assault released six studio albums, in addition to two live albums, four EPs and one compilation album. Their most successful records are Survive (1988) and Handle with Care (1989), which peaked at Nos. 145 and 126 on the Billboard 200 chart, respectively. Other than four new songs in 2015 on the EP Pounder, the band did not release any more full-length studio albums after 2005's Third World Genocide, but continued to perform live sporadically over the following years before calling it quits once again in 2022.
Members
-
Erik Burke guitar
-
Dave DiPietro guitar
Discography
Albums
Singles
Live
Compilations
Links
Official
Concerts
Buy
Instrumental supporting musician
Tags
- thrash
Identifiers
- MusicBrainz
- ffd3ac37-4d0a-42a1-a41e-e160cf60dca5
- ISNI
- 0000000115480332
Data from MusicBrainz, saved 6 Nov 2026. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, covers from the Cover Art Archive and Apple Music.