Album Review: NAILS Every Bridge Burning

It takes a special kind of hard-hitting for Nails to carry so much pedigree, considering the fact their three LPs only add up to 53 minutes of music. Along with a few splits, eps and singles, Unsilent Death, Abandon All Life, and You Will Never Be One of Us suddenly brought the depths of grind, power violence, and the Swedish underground into the Nuclear Blast space. While he describes Nails hardcore band, band leader Todd Jones has never shied away from name-dropping the metal he loves and incorporating it into his hardcore. Whether it’s Cavalera-era Sepultura, Entombed, or Japanese hardcore bands, the man finds the perfect balance of remaining a student of the game while bringing freshness to his brand-aural blunt-force trauma. But in the eight-year gap between albums, Jones had a new lineup. While entering such a formidable band must have been daunting, Every Bridge Burning shows that the Nails M.O. remains the same: to do as much damage in as little time as possible.

The blows come crashing in immediately, as “Imposing Will” stampedes from thudding guitar stabs, a whacking blast beat, and a devastating mosh part in under a minute and a half. Jones’ voice continues its interesting evolution, this time resembling a demonic cat hacking up a furball. His glass-gargling snarls give the grinding violence a wilder edge, much like Full of Hell or Dystopia. Kurt Ballou’s iconic production continues to work its enduring magic, with equal levels of clarity and grime. As bands such as Knocked Loose begin putting hip-hop producers behind the mixing board to get that oft-saught-after subtones, it’s nice to know that this Swede-core aesthetic retains its place in the culture. The saw can indeed still be law when a band knows how to use it… and Nails sure know their way around buzzsaw guitar tones.

If “Unsilent Death” harked to Chaos AD, and “Wide Open Wound” to Wolverine Blues, then “Give Me The Painkiller” brings the Motörhead wing of metal into its bare-bones assault. Granted, it’s Motörhead on crack, but the galloping drums, hammer on pull offs and spirited guitar solos make the old-school speed metal vibe a fantastic addition to the Nails playbook. On the other hand, “Lacking The Ability To Process Empathy” proves that Nails can still go straight for the jugular with a primitive half-time groove and chug-tastic beatdowns without coming off the same. Maybe it’s because it’s been so long since the last full-course meal from the band, but Nails clearly wrote this album as hungrily as their fans waited for it.

The blitz-speed attack of a cut like “Punishment Map” epitomizes the grind-violence approach — get in, kick ass, and get out. More importantly, Jones and his new company have retained the knack for writing stuff that sticks with you with so little time to spare. 38 seconds leaves no time to stop and smell the roses, but that’s okay because “Trapped” functions within Bridge as “Cry Wolf” did on Abandon. It’s pure distilled adrenaline, which obviously finds a spotlight on the title track. From its hyperactive punk flavors to its abusive two-stepping, Nails has yet to lose sight of the vanguard and foundations of extreme music… its timeless tropes and its gleeful boundary-pushing.

Amid the hectic abandon, it’s cool to hear Nails avoid becoming a one-trick pony. Out of “Made Up In Your Mind” and “Dehumanized,” only one has blast beats. The former returns to a galloping tempo, allowing the latter to stand out more for its full immersion in grindcore. Because songs start and end so quickly, the ideas don’t have enough time to get redundant but still maintain enough catchiness to merit more than one listen. The riffs are just too mean to ignore, striking that perfect balance of impact and finesse.

Every Bridge Burning doesn’t have the concluding sludge-fest dirge that ends previous albums, so it’s best to view “I Can’t Turn It Off” and “No More Rivers To Cross” as a parting one-two punch of gnarled aggression. It goes to show that Nails has yet to drop an album that isn’t all killer and no filler. Whether it’s the penultimate track’s energized thrashings to the final song’s stomping beatdown, it’s relieving to see a new iteration of this band deliver the complete savagery that has come to define them.

Nails exists to deliver the most music possible. No matter what they write, they can be counted on to deliver 110% pure uncut pandemonium. The fact Every Bridge Burnin can do this while remaining fresh enough for long-time fans and catchy enough for the Nuclear Blast shows that the real magic behind a band so throttling can also boil down to smart songwriting.