Despite hitting the reset button on their gig, building up a mostly new lineup, and taking a reasonable amount of time to gear up for their fourth chapter Oxnard, California-borne grindcore/hardcore punk quartet NAILS return with their main signature in hand, as any popular band might, tweaking the formula to suit where they’re at today. Conscious of the need to deliver upon expectations built ‘Every Bridge Burning‘ is both distinct and familiar at once, bearing just a few bigger surprises along the way while continuing to build their statement around the stripped back mania of death metal toned grindcore framed by the abrupt, full-bodied energy of hardcore punk. The success of their whole deal on record still hinges on succinct, cutting statements void of filler and without a doubt they’ve lived up to their general legacy with a fitting entry. How exciting that result is will ultimately hinge on your own expectations and whether or not their new points of flourish and evolution interrupt (or potentially enhance) the quick-and-deadly strike of it all.

Nails formed back in 2007 as a step into Todd Jones‘ own realm after having been an enthusiastic figure in Southern California youth crew/straight edge hardcore for several years, most notably as a founding member of Terror a popular offshoot of vocalist Scott Vogel‘s prior band Buried Alive. A couple of years later the band’s longtime bassist John Gianelli had joined alongside 108 drummer Tom Hogan for their first EP ‘Obscene Humanity‘ (2009) which showcased a kinda surprising move to heavier metalpunk, something inspired by both metallic hardcore grooves and the heavier side of d-beat stoked in the early 2000’s which fans of ‘Sleepwell Deconstructor‘-era Trap Them style grindcore/hardcore punk would still appreciate today. That first stab was huge but the addition of drummer Taylor Young (Twitching Tongues) and their first LP (‘Unsilent Death‘, 2010) was the band’s point of explosion into broader view as a hardcore group heavily inspired by classic powerviolence, grindcore and their own mosh-heavy take on it which didn’t spare the death metal guitar tone. As I’ve said many times in the past there are surface level crossover events and there are records made by folks who have great taste in both metal and punk, folks who understand each spectrum well enough, and the good stuff is rare enough that Nails stood out with appeal on both sides.

While that first record is still a damned pure thing it wasn’t the whole hog just yet, not the maniac stunner that was their second LP (‘Abandon All Life‘, 2013) as they made the jump to Southern Lord during a peaking Relapse level metalpunk era for the label (Black Breath, Agrimonia, Power Trip, etc.) where they were the outspoken grindcore element of the band took a trip to hi-fi and maniac levels inspired by groups like Infest and Crossed Out. At the time they weren’t alone but they were the extreme, all impact and not filler with an insane attack applied to every song. That is the main character of Nails, the focus of Jones‘ ambitions, and the band in a nutshell really but it seems they were only interested in making that record once and it’d have bored them to just regurgitate variations forever. That said, you will find the general precedence for everything done on ‘Every Bridge Burning‘ set on ‘Abandon All Life‘ and this was my own main point of connection made with the band’s material for the sake of how much they’d packed into that album, running the gamut. The main reason for cutting back through their discography, which takes less than an hour, is to recall what was so damned exciting about this band in the first place and the time and place (ten years ago) where they’d had their biggest impact.

That isn’t to say that ‘You Will Never Be One of Us‘ (2016) wasn’t as well received, their third album hit a lot more listener’s ears as their big Nuclear Blast debut and at the time Jones appeared provocatively outspoken, taking on the internet to the point where it sort of became a meme for some folks. I don’t care about all that and appreciated the album for its Terrorizer level attack and the bigger grooves it’d hit which recalled the ’00-’05 era of Napalm Death and of course Nasum‘s best. I dunno if I was a huge Nails fan at that point but I’d definitely spent serious time with that record enjoying the hustle and bustle of its bruiser, no-nonsense take on grind. Nearly eight years later Jones kinda pressed beyond a lack of inspiration felt between 2017-2019, eventually getting to work on the band post pandemia after working with Terror on ‘Pain and Power‘ (2022). With the split from two of the longtime members in 2021 writing for the next album began ~2022 with drummer Carlos Cruz (Warbringer, ex-Hexen) joining first and guitarist Shelby Lermo (Ulthar, Human Corpse Abuse, ex-Vastum) soon after and from my understanding that core trio wrote the album together. I dunno if the title ‘Every Bridge Burning‘ is on the nose, or just provocative but it seems like the reality is Jones burnt out at some point in the last few years and got back to it a couple of years beyond their usual three year cycle.

If you want to consider the ‘I Don’t Want to Know You‘ (2019) 7″ single as a prompt for where ‘Every Bridge Burning‘ picks up, fair enough. Different crew but similar focus on grooves and a big HM-2 pumped guitar tone, but I think this lines up with the general notion that Jones speaks to in reference to this album, the idea that his favorite bands always delivered their own sound and consistently met that expectation. This record is ultimately very different from their records previous when you peck through the details but it still sounds like Nails, unmistakably so. So, I’ve got the lyrics and spent several hours with the full album beyond re-examining the band’s discography and the results of any level of analysis or reach for new perspective will ultimately still amount to this being a “Nails-ass Nails record.” though there are a few surprises folks likely won’t be expecting as Jones’ guitar work had to change to keep himself interested in the overall formula and character of the band. That said, this band is still all about the abruptness and immediacy of apex hardcore punk given death metal energy, that point where inspiration from the 80’s personae rich extremity met up with the next-level of post-millennial extreme metal.

Opener “Imposing Will” is that bursting-forth point, probably more gnarled than expected for an opening groove but a good indication of the default setting for speed and punishment this record carries with. I’m not going to dissect a bunch of one minute songs here beyond emphasizing a few big hitters here and there but up front the God City Studios specialty: hardcore apropos use of the Boss HM-2, is once again in heavy use to the point that it overtakes the first impression of all else up front. The shapes provided by the drums are of course just as big though not in the same way Young‘s style was we find the bass guitar thumbing along in the background, via Andrew Solis (Despise You, Apparition) and resting in the back of the perceived space alongside the vocals as we step into the bigger pauses offered by “Punishment Map”. The first impression made on the initial three or so songs didn’t have me windmill punching out of my chair and not because they weren’t good but for the sake of it the Swedish death metal built guitar tone is tied to more generica than it is greatness and doesn’t grip me off the jump anymore.

“Give Me the Painkiller” would finally provide the curveball, the step outside the known self and at least some delivery on this notion put forth that this album emphasizes more personalized guitar expression. How they achieve this is by yanking some speed metal swing from Motörhead and it isn’t exactly Inepsy or even ‘Wolverine Blues‘ in terms of how far they go with it but it is a moment that d-beat and death n’ roll fans might appreciate when butted up against the slower, chugging grooves of another single, “Lacking the Ability to Process Empathy“. My brain kinda turns off around the ~1:31 mark of the latter as a pretty flat mosh riff connects but this’d otherwise serve as one of the more notable tonal shifts among many as the nuance available to this bulldozer of a ~20 minute record gets hammered out.

As we step into Side B the general thrust of things repeats itself with shorter, burst fired songs set up front and the chunkier bigger grooves pushed to the end of the record with “I Can’t Turn it Off” reprising some of the feeling of “Give Me the Painkiller” and “Trapped” giving the album opener a run for its spicier feedback screeching haul up front. The more time I’d spent with ‘Every Bridge Burning‘ the more I’d preferred the second half, kinda wishing they’d opened with those songs (sans the choice of perfectly set closer “No More Rivers to Cross”) and closed with Side A. Granted it doesn’t matter in the slightest if you leave it on a loop or pick up a CD but either way I’d felt like the best songs on the record were chunking away at it on the back half.

Otherwise I’ve only got a few small points to touch upon as you’ve gotten the damn idea at this point. — The lyrics have improved this time around, maybe a bit more acerbic and plotted out to the point where we get diarized reactivity and the brutal honesty of hardcore from a sometimes menacing point of view. We get a sharp looking reprise of the daemon that’d featured on Jef Whitehead‘s cover artwork for the previous album as the artist returns with a depiction rising from the sea and breathing fire. It fits as yet another aspect of ‘Every Bridge Burning‘ that is familiar yet new enough that it doesn’t feel like a straight up repeat of the last.

What’d be the appropriate takeaway here after this many years and this many albums… a more mature Nails? I mean it is a solid record, they’ve not forgotten who they are under the direction of Jones and the folks involved smoke their way through these songs, all of which feel like they’re pushing the wagon forward rather than leering back upon the past. The heavy rock inspired touches which gild the album give it an appreciably different swing and the big doomed death metal grind of the finale offers a big enough moment to entertain beyond the face-to-face chug and punch modus otherwise but I’m not sure this album serves that “holy shit” get up and go kind of moment that the previous two had. Instead of pushing it to the brink and popping a forehead vein this record matches the energy of the previous (which is still a high enough bar) and tweaks a few things to help bring in some distinction. As a general fan of their stuff I’ve no big complaint about this though I’ve no major investment in it either. My taste still jams back with their earlier stuff and the classic spectrum of 80’s grind/hardcore punk and 90’s powerviolence but I could definitely hang with this record and enjoyed the concise, cutting statement it served. I don’t think it’ll stick with me in the long run in terms of a lasting fixation but when I do reach for the Nails discography this one will be a worthy addition to their overall fix. A moderately high recommendation.

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