review: Nuclear Winter

Nuclear Winter

Night Scapes

MMD Records

July 15th, 2020

A possible conclusion to arrive at by listening to the music of Nuclear Winter (Zimbabwe) is that when it comes to pop music the rules in death metal seem to be strict and frozen: “don’t let them in, don’t let them see, be the good deathster you always have to be.” The one-person project Nuclear Winter is pop death metal. “Well, now they know!” When it comes all those rules, Nuclear Winter seeks to “let it go, let it go,” declaring, “let the pop rage on, the pop never bothered me anyway.” Earlier this year this entity showed the world its version of the Toto classic “Africa,” the überfamous classic (with more than 580 million views online; how many times a day does it come on the radio around the world?!). Of course, there’s no way that an extreme metal version of “Africa” can have the original’s magical super catchy charm, but that’s to be expected.

Nuclear Winter is a very poppy death metal project and completely unashamed of it. For American fans, they might think Fear Factory is an influence and for European fans, they might think that Soilwork and Scar Symmetry are influences. American metalcore fans might also like the growl/sing combination. This recording also has a cover version of “New York, New York,” sung by ol’ blues eyes himself Frank Sinatra. Several metal bands have covered the song before, but it’s still a relatively novel idea to cover it. It sounds pretty ridiculous, and experience shows that when children hear the Nuclear Winter version they think it’s fun, too. You decide which version is more ridiculous: this one or Devin Townsend’s? In a way, this new one is musically closer to the original. Really, the Devin Townsend version does not even sound like the original and he (surprise, surprise) over sings on it, screams and rants all over it, whereas this one does have the main rhythm swag of the original, done with the help of synths or keyboards.

Mark these words. Nuclear Winter will one day perform the song “New York, New York” in New York City. Nuclear Winter will close the show with that song, and when that happens, holy guacamoleee, the crowd is going to go so nuts! I make this prediction right now in 2020, the year of the coronavirus. Remember what Metal Bulletin Zine told you. Nuclear Winter in New York City performing “New York, New York.” One day it shall happen. So it is written, so it will be done.

StormScapes EP by Nuclear Winter