Nuclear Death
band

Nuclear Death was an American death metal band formed in 1986 in Phoenix, Arizona. They were an early example of an extreme metal band with a female vocalist, Lori Bravo.
Their style, which drummer Joel Whitfield described as "deathrashardcorextreme music", was compared to bands like Repulsion and Scum-era Napalm Death.
History
Lori Bravo (bass guitar), Phil Hampson (guitar), and Joel Whitfield (drums) formed Nuclear Death on March 23, 1986, while they were in high school. Nuclear Death cited Venom, Motörhead, The Plasmatics, Witchfinder General, and Discharge as their influences. Their first demo, Wake Me When I'm Dead, was released later that same year, receiving positive reviews from American and overseas zines. At the time, few death metal artists had female singers. Their second demo, Welcome to the Minds of the Morbid, followed in 1987, on the back of which Nuclear Death signed a contract with Richard Campos from Wild Rags, a record label, fanzine and record dealer in California.
In 1991, the band released the controversial album Carrion for Worm, containing songs considered distasteful, such as "The Human Seed", "Lurker in the Closet: A 'Fairy' Tale", and "Greenflies". Carrion for Worm featured vocals by Chris Reifert, from death metal band Autopsy, on two songs, "Cathedral of Sleep" and "Vampirism".
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This entry incorporates text from “Nuclear Death” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.