Definitely good as they were but very different.
I first heard NMA during episode 3 of 'Edge of Darkness' (discovery of Terry Watts body in the bath by Jedburgh - can't find a clip for it - but see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_of_darkness ) in or about 1985 (probably after it won a raft of BAFTA's and so made it to Australian TV).
At the time I think the impression was almost zero because the film was so amazingly suprising & good.
Nearly 25 years on, while watching the DVDs of Edge of Darkness, I couldn't believe how good 'Christian Militia' was. It had everything I wanted, sensible lyrics (although they are silly: who would honestly not choose a Christian Militia over any other sort), a kickarse base line, a memorable guitar and that American prejudice that goes down so well in all the English speaking world saving the obvious.
After buying pretty well all the NMA albums (T&C, 8 and High are the major exceptions) and while I don't listen to CM as often, I still think their stuff is what all popular music should be.
Just for reference I especially like
Poison St
States Radio
Long Goodbye
Bad old World
Rumour and Rapture
BD3 (what an EP, at least the American one)
Curse
La Push
Carlisle Rd (!! who on earth writes a song setting the police in a good light ?)
and so on and so on.
One of my younger (by about 30 years) colleagues also likes NMA (to my suprise, since he likes Metallica and so on).
While I have gone off things I really enjoyed earlier (Lib Ed, Spirit of the F, Look at me) it's only because at the moment I prefer the later plusher sound (exemplified by States Radio and even Carlisle Rd). What an amazing bunch of musicians to make sounds ranging from CM to CR to SR to Gigabyte Wars, Knife & Brother. All with Lyrics that don't make one puke.
