Bassist Dan Lilker On Being Ba

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Having been on everyone’s wish list for reunions, John Connelly, Dan Lilker and company have finally delivered and resurrected on of the greatest Thrash bands, Nuclear Assault. The Nuke guys were always pushing the boundaries of their genre until their demise in the early ‘90s. It was a pleasure to speak with a True Metal icon, Dan Lilker, who has participated in countless bands such as Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, S.O.D., Brutal Truth, and The Ravenous to just name a few. It sounds like 2003 will be a busy year for the band as they are just starting a North American tour before they venture to Europe. Read on to find out more of what is to come from Dan Lilker and Nuclear Assault.

KNAC.COM: So tonight is the first night of the tour?
LILKER: Yeah, there are a few warm-up shows in the Northeast before we head down to Texas. The actual shows away from this area aren’t until next weekend. We’re just doing a few shows around here, but yeah you can say it just started.

KNAC.COM: Are you guys just playing by yourselves?
LILKER: No, there’s All That Remains on the rest of the shows. Origin was supposed to be on the rest of the shows starting in Texas, but…

KNAC.COM: Oh no…
LILKER: Yeah, there were some problems. I can’t really comment on it. It’s not my business. Well, there’s a new band called Vehemence that’s on the shows from San Antonio until Phoenix. When we finally hit the west coast, there’s a new band called Crematorium on the rest of the shows up until Seattle.

KNAC.COM: It sounds like a solid lineup.
LILKER: Yeah, I mean obviously I know about the modern sound having played with Brutal Truth. By having bands with a modern sound, it’s good to mix the old and the new. It should be cool.

KNAC.COM: The No Mercy Festival that you’re doing in Europe has a killer lineup as well.
LILKER: Yeah, that’s going to be a lot of fun. I can’t wait for that in the beginning of April.

KNAC.COM: The obvious question is what was the impetus for getting Nuclear Assault back together?
LILKER: Yeah, that’s pretty obvious [Laughs]. Well, a lot of it had to do with me and what I had time for because I left the band in ’92 and went to do Brutal Truth. That went on until ’98. The band broke up. People weren’t getting along. As soon as that band broke up, S.O.D. started doing stuff again. We released Bigger Than the Devil and started doing shows. That is around March of 2000. Ironically, at one of the last shows that S.O.D. did, I wound up meeting the woman that I end up marrying. So instead of playing in a band for a couple of years, I was actually courting and getting to know my other half that I’m going to spend the rest of my life with. I got a phone call in February of 2002 of last year after we’re already married and established so it’s okay to start doing some shows again, right? [Laughs] I got a phone call from our biggest fan, Eric, from the band Candy Striper Death Orgy. He’s actually here tonight because this is the first show in Massachusetts where they’re from. He would call me every few years asking if I’d do the band again, and I’d tell him I was too busy. Finally, after ten years it seemed like it would be fun to play some good old Thrash again. So a lot of it had to do with me having the time to do it right.

KNAC.COM: How was the reaction at the reunion shows of last year?
LILKER: That was pretty good. With the Internet now, when you get home from the gig there’s already stuff on message boards about it. Between that and magazine reviews, people could tell we still had it. That’s an important part with all these Thrash bands coming back out. You want to make sure people can still play at the intensity they once did, and we can, no problem.

KNAC.COM: Is there a date yet for the live album that’s in the works to be released?
LILKER: It’s going to be released very soon. I don’t have the release date yet. That also was done in this part of the country, in Massachusetts last May on Screaming Ferret Records. That guy is a good friend of Eric’s, the guy who originally called me about getting Nuclear Assault back together. It should be cool. Some people have been asking why we’re putting a live album out. The answer to that is because it’s very easy to put out rather than waiting to write all our new stuff, find a label, record the record, and wait for it to come out. You can record a live album and have it come out much quicker.

KNAC.COM: Is Screaming Ferret going to be your official label, or are they just putting this live album out?
LILKER: We’ll wait and see. They seem to be doing well. There’s an advantage to that. They’re a smaller label so we’re going to be getting a lot of attention, where if you’re on Century Media or Metal Blade you’re in competition with 30 bands of the same fashion. I don’t know. We shall see.

KNAC.COM: There’s definitely an advantage of being a big fish in a small pond.
Dan. Oh yeah, especially now with the Internet. You don’t have to worry about paying 75 bucks for an ad in Metal Maniacs as much as keeping up with your own web site. You pay a server 50 bucks for six months and advertise as much as you want. I think that makes a big difference now. It made everything a bit smaller.

KNAC.COM: What about reissues? It’s almost impossible to find the older stuff on CD.
LILKER: Survive is a really hard one to find because that was on IRS and they did not get it re-pressed. You shouldn’t have so much of a problem finding Handle with Care and the combination Game Over/The Plague CDs. It gets complicated because you’ve got to talk to the label that owns the rights to it. They don’t care about it anymore, BUT they still own it and they still want to make money off of it. It gets a little messy trying to re-release some of that stuff.

KNAC.COM: What would you pinpoint as your fondest memory of Nuclear Assault back in the day?
LILKER: Probably the first time we went to Europe, which would be April of 1987. That’s something you dream about. There’s enough people caring about you that you can actually take a free flight to a foreign country and different worlds. The first time in Japan, too, was great. There are memories of different records, where you were at the time and things like that. I would definitely say conquering foreign territory is a pretty cool American way to put it. [Laughs]

KNAC.COM: Nuclear Assault has always injected the music with political themes. What are your thoughts on the climate of today?
LILKER: Well, there’s always something to talk about! [Laughs] Back in 1985, a year after we formed, we realized this is cool, but let’s put a message to the music and not just write about typical Metal stuff. It made it more interesting. There’s always something to talk about. I mean, if it was S.O.D., we’d write a song called “Kill Yourself” or something, but Nuclear Assault has always had a more restrained approach.

KNAC.COM: What are your feelings on a lot of the Thrash bands reuniting?
LILKER: As long as the band still has it, I think it’s great. Some people might say it’s a fashion or a trend, but we’ve had like 7 years of Nu- Metal. I think it’s time people are exposed to what I feel is proper Metal. I’m kind of opinionated about that, but it’s me.

KNAC.COM: I definitely agree with you on that. When I spoke with you after the release of Bigger than the Devil, one of the focal points of that chat was how much Limp Bizkit sucks! [Laughs]
LILKER: Yeah, well I haven’t changed have I? [Laughs]

KNAC.COM: Is there any new material in the works?
LILKER: We have stuff written, but we’ve only gotten to that point. We haven’t jammed it with the whole band, but I can tell you already it’s going to sound like the good old days of the ‘80s. It’s along the lines of Survive and Handle with Care. It’s not as raw as Game Over, but very focused and intense. It will kick people’s asses. Don’t worry. I’ll be surprised if Nuclear Assault fans don’t like it. It’s no great departure, but it’s fresh.

KNAC.COM: I have to ask about S.O.D. Is it on ice indefinitely?
LILKER: Probably, indefinitely. More than likely. Yeah, that kind of went down bad in the end with people screaming at each other. Not me, I’m not a screamer. I’ll tell you what, I’m sure if there was some great paycheck, everyone would get along fine. [Laughs] That’s just my cynical opinion. Take it or leave it.

KNAC.COM: Are you doing anything else with Killjoy. The Ravenous CD was insane!
LILKER: That’s funny you asked that, dude. We finished the second full-length Ravenous yesterday! I did it where I live in Rochester, NY. Our new album should be called Blood Delirium. It’s going to feature hit songs like, “Baptized by Demon’s Piss.” Everything’s like that. Never forget, man, a corpse is forever!

KNAC.COM: There are a lot of projects for old school and newer fans alike to look forward to.
LILKER: What is old is new again, and what is new is old again.

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(Photos Courtesy of Chris Kondra)