UMUR "Out of Order" is the 4th full-length studio album by US thrash metal act Nuclear Assault. The album was released through I.R.S. Records in September 1991. It´s the successor to "Handle With Care" from 1989. While Nuclear Assault weren´t the most commercially successful thrash metal act of their time, "Survive (1988)" and "Handle With Care (1989)" both earned them a strong following and the late 80s are probably considered their peak by most listeners. By 1991 the thrash metal scene was in decline, but Nuclear Assault soldiered on. The lineup who recorded "Handle With Care (1989)" is intact: John Connelly (vocals, guitars), Anthony Bramante (guitars, backing vocals), Dan Lilker (bass, backing vocals), and Glenn Evans (drums, percussion, backing vocals).

"Out of Order" opens pretty strong with "Sign in Blood", and "Fashion Junkie" and "Too Young to Die" are also decent tracks, but from there the quality of the material on the 11 track, 46:02 minutes long album drops. It´s not horrible low standards or anything like that, and Nuclear Assault are still a force to be reckoned with, but stylistically the album comes off fragmented and a bit directionless. It´s thrash metal metal done the Nuclear Assault way, although their previous crossover influences aren´t heard much on this album.

It´s still audible that Nuclear Assault are skilled musicians and John Connelly´s distinct sounding voice is as piercing and raw as ever, so the choice to let the other three guys in the band sing lead vocals on a couple of tracks is not a good one. None of those guys have voices which are especially distinct sounding, and the vocal parts on those tracks end up sounding slightly amateurish in comparison to the tracks where Connelly sings. From the outside it could look like a band with inner power struggles and a band who had run out of ideas, and desperately were trying to do something different to keep the flame alive. The uninspired cover of "Ballroom Blitz" by Sweet doesn´t really help on the positive impression of the album.

It´s a bit of a shame really, because the songwriting on the best tracks on the album show great maturity and development since the predecessor, and the sound production is professional, clear, and powerful. So "Out of Order" features a lot of great things too (I could mention a load of really well played guitar solos as one more great feature), but as described above also quite a few features dragging the album down. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.

Kingcrimsonprog Nuclear Assault’s fourth full length studio album Out Of Order saw the band take a slight change of pace; as the 1980s ended it seemed that most thrash bands decided they couldn’t continue the way they were going.

Out Of Order was released in 1991 and saw the classic line-up of band experiment with slower tempos and songwriting styles which they hadn’t tried before for their last album together, which had mixed results and a mixed critical reaction at the time. The album even contains a cover version of Sweet’s Ballroom Blitz.

The band don’t much support this album live anymore, preferring to concentrate on earlier material and many fans would say that this album and even more so, the album which followed aren’t up to the same high standards as their older albums like Game Over and Survive. Additionally; the album doesn’t contain any comedy moments and doesn’t contain any brief extreme hardcore punk tracks, both of which had been at least part of the band’s appeal.

Despite this, the album is not devoid of merit by any means. While it may not be as fast as Handle With Care or as perfectly formed as Survive, Out Of Order still has a few very good songs on it and is certainly of some interest to Nuclear Assault fans. Don’t think of it as a complete write-off to be ignored, just that it couldn’t live up to the high quality of the albums which came before.

Highlights include the speedy and classic sounding ‘Quocustodiat,’ and the bouncy ‘Sign In Blood,’ as well as the brilliant ten-minute instrumental ‘Save The Planet,’ which should please any serious fan of the band.

Overall; Out Of Order isn’t the band’s greatest work but still has enough merit to warrant a few curiosity listens at a minimum. There are definitely still a few great tracks on the album and it is certainly an interesting listen. Not suitable for strict Thrash Purists who don’t like any deviation from the golden formula, but for fans with an open mind this is a solid seven-out-of-ten level release.