Richard HolmesNails – Every Bridge Burning (Nuclear Blast)
In 2020, Nails looked to have rusted away. 2016’s You Will Never Be One Of Us was in the rear view mirror, and both drummer Taylor Young and bassist John Gianelli had quit. Hopes for another round of flesh searing intensity in the vein of Abandon All Life were fading.
But founder and frontman Todd Jones clearly had other ideas, announcing Nails’ return with a pic taken at producer Kurt Ballou’s God City Studios. Ulthar guitarist Shelby Lermo, Warbringer drummer Carlos Cruz and Despise You bassist Andrew Solis were all recruited, and Every Bridge Burning is the result.
So how does it stack up?
Nails bring the hammer down
Few bands have ever matched Nails for total, unhinged aggression. Yes, there are plenty of acts who blend grind, death metal, powerviolence and crusty HC, and many do it very well indeed. But from debut album Unsilent Death onwards, there was just something about Nails’ chaos-channelling carnage that set the Californians apart.
Every Bridge Burning is every bit as ferocious as its predecessors. Jones’ new bandmates have slide into Nails’ world seamlessly. Their singleness of purpose is evident as soon as opener Imposing Will detonates. And thanks to long-time collaborator Ballou, every devastating chord sounds like it was drenched in sulphuric acid: no wonder Jones returned to the Converge guitarist and studio mastermind yet again.
The deft switches of pace hurl you through concrete. Incendiary fretwork scorches the earth. Jones roars with an urgency born from the years without this outlet.
But of that would count for nought if the songs failed to ignite.
However, many of the tracks would take their place alongside Nails’ best.
Exhibit A is Give Me The Painkiller. Heard a catchier, snappier riff in 2024? We doubt it.
Lacking The Ability To Process Empathy, meanwhile, brings that trademark, mantle shattering stomp to the band’s fourth album.
Then you have Made Up In Your Mind, a perfectly cooked piece of gristly d-beat, and closer No More Rivers To Cross (practically an epic at three plus minutes) which sees Nails take a slow(er) lane to Armageddon, steered by their Entombed overlords.
Quality rises from this album like a heat haze.
Perhaps Every Bridge Burning lacks the killer blow of a Suum Cuique or a No Surrender. But this short, sharp shock of a record more than lives up to the Nails moniker, and opens up a promising new chapter for Jones.
Band photo by Hristo Shindov.
