By Andrew Bansal
Oxnard, California based power violence band Nails have been around for nearly a decade, and for the longest time, marched on with a do-it-yourself ethos, playing shows wherever they were allowed to, in the dumps and dungeons of the Los Angeles/Southern California extreme music underground. Amidst crushing every stage they stepped foot on, they also kept releasing studio recordings on a regular basis, and up until 2013, had two EPs, a split and two full-length albums to their name, the last LP ‘Adandon All Life’ having been released by Southern Lord Recordings in 2013. All these releases came across as very short, precise and deadly. Forward to 2014, they got signed to Nuclear Blast Entertainment, and quickly, all the mainstream rock media outlets that ignored this band’s existence for so many years started noticing them, to the extent that Nails is now gracing cover stories, and lo and behold, they even got accepted on Metal Archives, where they were previously thought to be too brutal to get classified as metal. Based on this breakthrough of theirs, their third full-length and Nuclear Blast debut ‘You Will Never Be One Of Us’ is releasing on June 17th 2016, and comes as more anticipated and hyped than any previous Nails release. It remained to be seen whether it still retained the angst and venom the band’s music has been known for.
As someone once said, numbers don’t tell the whole truth, and this is proven yet again, as ‘You Will Never Be One Of Us’, on paper, is Nails’ longest studio album till date, clocking in a little over 21 minutes, but it’s slightly misleading because a majority of this duration is taken up by the 8-minute final track ‘They Come Crawling Back’, and in reality, this Nails album is otherwise just as to-the-point as any of the band’s past work, and doesn’t waste any time in putting its point across. The title track starts off this slab of bestiality with unabatedly heavy riffs and devastating vocals and an earth-shattering rhythm section, with the tempo rapidly transitioning between crossover thrash speed and mid-tempo breakdown style, all within the song’s 90-second length. Short bursts of unrelenting violence such as ‘Friend To All’, ‘Made To Make You Fall’ and ‘Life Is A Death Sentence’ keep this all-conquering freight train going, while the slow, churning, 3-minute doom-laden composition ‘Violence Is Forever’ brings forth the strength of the guitar play and the expertly effective utilization of every single note and riff.
The second half of the album does not fade away in intensity one bit, as the tracks ‘Savage Intolerance’, ‘In Pain’, ‘Parasite’ and ‘Into Quietus’ all hit hard with the ammunition to wreck skulls and break necks. We then arrive at the epic conclusion, the aforementioned 8-minute tune ‘They Come Crawling Back’. Fans would have never imagined a band like Nails venturing to create songs this long, but this is an incredibly mature and thought-out piece of songwriting, and stands as the bleakest, slowest, darkest blend of down-tuned heaviness the band has ever released. Despite its length it never gets overly repetitive, but just enough to create its desired impact. And for those that still prefer albums over singles, this song also ensures that the listener is ready for some fast-paced Nails by the time this ends, and is compelled to press ‘play’ on the record all over again.
Even with their newfound mainstream prominence, Nails continue to stay real to themselves and their fans, and as evident from the 21 minutes that constitute ‘You Will Never Be One Of Us’, they keep getting more violent and powerful with every release. As for the lyrics, frontman Todd Jones gets darker and more rebellious than ever in expressing his thoughts and exorcising his demons. Besides, producer Kurt Ballou also showcases his knowhow and expertise in extracting the very best out of the Nails sound without compromising its power or purpose.
‘You Will Never Be One Of Us’ is one mighty fine slab of structured violence that portrays Nails at their destructive best.
Rating: 9/10
(If you like what you’ve read, support Metal Assault and buy a shirt!)
Record Label: Nuclear Blast
Release Date: June 17th 2016
Track Listing:
01. You Will Never Be One Of Us
02. Friend To All
03. Made To Make You Fall
04. Life Is A Death Sentence
05. Violence Is Forever
06. Savage Intolerance
07. In Pain
08. Parasite
09. Into Quietus
10. They Come Crawling Back
Links: facebook | twitter | instagram