Nuclear Monks – Living in a New Town

Nuclear Monks
Living in a New Town
1991 Dah! Records
Mooresville, Indiana, USA

Scott Hudnall – Bass, vocals
Kenny Johnson – Guitar
Mark Clark – Drums, background vocals

1. Heartbeat
2. Broken Hearted Girl
3. New Town
4. River of Hope
5. Stereo
6. Forgiven
7. Chasing the Ball Down the Street
8. Real

I saw this tape on eBay, and the description intrigued me (not to mention the interesting band name). But it was out of my price range for a band I knew nothing about. However, I found out that it was also released on CD (with two different covers above), and that there was a copy for sale for cheap by someone that didn’t know how rare it was. So I took a chance, and I am glad I did. Nuclear Monks basically falls into the alternative rock / gothic rock tag. To be honest, they could have easily fit in with Sincerely Paul, Black Carnation, and Tribe of Dan on the Blonde Vinyl Records label. There is a slight influence of Sonic Temple-era The Cult here and there, along with The Alarm as well. As the CD goes on, the harder rock influences from late-80s The Cult drop off, and the band starts sounding like a more alt/goth mixture of The Stand, Brighton, The Cry, etc. Of course, I say that and then the final song “Real” comes roaring out with their hard rock/alt/goth sound. Interesting to note that the guy in the middle on the front cover is wearing a Die Happy t-shirt that Roger Martinez of Vengeance Rising fame used to wear a lot. But I don’t hear any thrash metal influence at all. All in all, this appears to be another alternative rock hidden treasure along the lines of Octover – should have been snatched up by some label, but never was it seems. I’m not sure what is up with the two different covers above other than being different editions (mine is the green one) – they seem to have the same release date and tracks on them otherwise.