Crannk Interviews Nuclear

I was born a metalhead and will die a metalhead and one thing I truly enjoy is being able to share that with you all and meet and talk to amazingly talented bands like South American Metal Heavyweights Nuclear from Chile. Recently Matias and Fransico took some time to have a chat about the history of Nuclear how they got into playing music and what they have got going on now, we even talked a little about Aussie Thrash Metal. So enjoy the read then go Crannk up some NUCLEAR.

Nuclear one of South America’s hardest-working Thrash/Metal bands thank you so much for taking the time to have a chat with myself Jai That Aussie Metal Guy and Crannk I really appreciate it.

Matías (Vocals): Hey Jai, many thanks for this interview and your interest in Nuclear! We’re so glad to have this chat with you and to show to the Australian metalheads some of our work. So… let’s start this dose of Southamerican metal!

First off for those who haven’t heard Of Nuclear can we get a little background on you guys.
Jai Q:Who are Nuclear and How did Nuclear form?

Francisco: Hi Jai, really nice talking to you. To make the long story short, Nuclear started in 2003 from the ashes of another band called Escoria. We were basically 3 out the 5 guys wanting to start a new project, with ideas and imprint. After some line-up changes with ended up with Matías Leonicio on vocals, Sebastian Puente on guitars, Punkto Sudy on drums, Roberto Barría on bass and myself, Francisco Haussmann, guitars. We kind of mix elements from many styles trying not to stay tied up to just one of them. We love punk, thrash and death metal mostly and we often use elements from all those styles to come up with new music.

Jai Q: How would you describe your sound?

Matías (Vocals): It’s an interesting question because i think we’re a mixture between several genres into extreme music. But if i have to choose, i can say that we play a mix between Thrash, Death Metal and Hardcore Punk. In the band we’re die-hard fans of music and we love to share albums in our rehearsals, talk about new releases or just listening to our favorite bands after the sessions. In that sense, We’d like to define Nuclear as extreme metal in all the sense of the word: heavy music, violent, fast, aggressive and confrontational.

 
Jai Q:How did you get into playing music?
Francisco (Guitars): Music picked our interest since we were kids to be honest. We started listening to heavy music since little and one thing led to another. In a couple of years, we already had a covers band and not too long after, original music. As we grew up in a small town (Arica), we did not have many places where to get instruments or even play live, so the first years were somehow difficult.

Jai Q:And how did you get into heavy metal?
Francisco (Guitars): The first time I ever heard something really heavy must’ve been that time at a friend’s birthday party. I remember a guy bringing Metallica’s Master Of Puppets to that party and we just went nuts. We were maybe 9 years old and that afternoon turned out to be a breaking point in my life. All sofa cushions fled over the living room and we were kicked out of the party. I happened to live just a few blocks away – we took the cassette and went to keep listening to it at my place. The rest is history.

Jai Q:What do you feel are some of your early influences that helped and inspire you as a musician?
Francisco (Guitars):Thrash metal definitely at first. I remember jamming early Sepultura stuff, Kreator, Metallica, Slayer. Right after that we started listening to Swedish death metal and bands such as Dismember, Grave, Desultory or Entombed were always in our cassette players. Actually, the very first song we ever wrote has a Swedish death metal vibe to some extent.

JaiQ: I am a real fan of thrash metal and was really glad I came across Nuclear and love your sound,l went and got everything I could from your bandcamp but if you could build a playlist of 5 songs from Nuclear to play for someone to showcase you guys what tracks would you pick?

Matías (vocals): Definitely “Self-Righteous Hypocrites”, “Sadistic Method For Crime”, “Waging War”, “Brutal Yet Precise” and “Eleventh Block”. If I can include some bonus track, I choose our version for “Evil Dead”, originally recorded by the mighty Death. You can listen to these tracks on Spotify or Bandcamp.

 
Jai Q:Nuclear being a thrash band do you get much of a chance to check out thrash from other parts of the world and how do you feel the state of the thrash scene is at the moment?
Francisco (Guitars):There is a never-ending debate on this I’d say. We love checking new bands and projects around the world and we find some of them really amazing. A fraction of the thrash fanbase think that “the good” thrash metal ended during the late 80’s or early 90’s. Media support nowadays may not be that strong for newcomers but if you dig deep enough you can and will find amazing thrash metal bands all around.

 
Here are some thrash bands from my part of the world If you get the chance check Truth Corroded,Desecrator,Hidden Intent,Mason,In Malices Wake from Australia\m/ and let me know what you think.

Matías (Vocals): I know Desecrator and In Malice’s Wake, aggressive thrash metal, very good bands. Lately I’ve discovered Battlegrave and Sewercide, more into Death Metal or Death/Thrash and they kill! Battlegrave’s latest release is a blast i really liked it, the aggressive music in the way it should be. Even we shared stage with the classics Mortal Sin several years ago, good show and good memories.

 
Jai Q: So Nuclear are from South America how would you describe the state of the heavy metal scene over there?
Francisco (Guitars): It has its ups and downs. Probably you’ve heard about bands making DVDs in Chile or in some other countries in South America but that’s just one side of it. For mainstream bands coming here, the heavy metal scene seems like in a very good shape, selling out concerts and merch. However, the local scene in each country differs from that. While there are some acts that have decent attendances at shows, the majority of them do not. There are still a lot to be done in that regard.
 
Jai Q: What bands are you thrashing out to from South America that you feel we should all Check out and Crannk up?
Matías (Vocals): I would like to recommend some very good Chilean Thrash bands such as Conflicted, Dekapited, Critical Defiance, Ripper and Warchest. If you’re into fast and aggressive Thrash Metal, these bands definitely will turn your speakers into flamethrowers. Southamerica have a lot of good bands, specially in Colombia, Brazil and Argentina.

 
Jai Q: What has Nuclear got going on at the moment and going into 2019?
Francisco (Guitars): Mostly writing and recording demos for the upcoming album. It’s been 4 years since we released “Formula For Anarchy” and it is definitely time for a new one. Once the album is ready, we will start a Chilean tour to promote it and right after, Europe and the rest of South America. We would love to go to some countries we’ve never been into (like Australia), but time will tell.

 
Jai: Nuclear thank you again for making the time to do this for Crannk and Myself Jai that Aussie Metal Guy I really do appreciate your time.Keep Crannking the Metal and don’t stop the Thrash.\m/

Matías (Vocals): Thanks a lot Jai for this interview and for your support, I hope the Australian thrash-maniacs like our songs and it would be awesome if sometime Nuclear can hit Australian stages to show you guys our music live… we had a cool time replying to your questions and thanks for spreading the word about Nuclear, cheers mate!

Kind Regards Crannk and Jai Anderson

Nuclear are
Sebastian Puente – Guitars
Francisco Haussmann – Guitars
Punto Sudy – Drums
Roberto Barría – Bass
Matías Leonicio – Vocals

Nuclear Bandcamp https://nuclear.bandcamp.com/

Nuclear FBhttps://www.facebook.com/nuclearcl/