By Andrew Bansal
Two great hardcore acts, San Francisco’s Skin Like Iron and LA’s Nails have come together to bring you this limited edition, self-released split EP. It will be released on January 31st 2012. To be honest, I familiarized myself with these two bands only recently, but since then I’ve had huge amounts of respect and admiration for what they’ve done musically in their careers, always keeping it real, and more specifically, keeping it brutal. Just like their previous work, this short, concise and high-intensity release does not disappoint me even one bit.
Side A consists of two tracks by Skin Like Iron, “Disappear” and “The Parade”. Even though these are short in length, they are not short on music. Both tracks build up very well to get to their fast-paced sections, and even go through interludes and variations in tempo. Side B couldn’t be more contrasting. While Skin Like Iron’s tunes follow a more conventional verse-chorus type structure, Nails create a relentless avalanche of brutality. The two tunes “Annihilation” and “Cry Wolf” are straight up hardcore, and to-the-point. They’re a band that simply never disappoints, a fact that has been proven all over again through this EP.
Overall, this high-impact, breakneck 9-minute EP should please everyone who calls himself a fan of heavy music. Spare a couple of bucks from your Christmas shopping money and support these awesome bands. Only a 1000 copies of this EP have been pressed, 900 of which are made on black wax while the rest of them are on blue. These are available from the bands only, so keep your eyes peeled on www.unsilentdeath.com and www.blacksummer.com/sli for details on how to order. Get your copy as soon as you can, pound down a beer or two, and start a moshpit in your house while spinning this brutally fantastic record.
Rating: 10/10
US Release Date: January 31st 2012
Label: N/A [Self-released]
Track Listing:
1. Disappear [Skin Like Iron]
2. The Parade [Skin Like Iron]
3. Annihilation [Nails]
4. Cry Wolf [Nails]