Sixth Post: Nails, "You Will Never Be One of Us" (2016)

Nails is the latest band to be branded "one of the heaviest in the world", but there's some basis to it with this group. Fronted by guitarist Todd Jones (formerly of Carry On and Betrayed), the band devotes itself to channeling one emotion: anger. One of my favorite sayings about the band is that they cut the "boring" parts of beloved hardcore genres, leaving short, violent and crazy intense combinations of metal and punk.

Their newest album finds Nails at their most focused and mature. Following the fantastic albums "Unsilent Death" (2010) and "Abandon All Life" (2013), Nails returned to record the album with producer extraordinaire Kurt Ballou, best known as the guitarist for Converge. The production on this album is reason enough to listen to it: it's one of the most intense recordings of the year. Everything seems turned up to its limit. The band focused on the mid-range this time around, ditching some of the higher end of "Abandon All Life" to favor a pummeling, feel-it-in-your-gut approach. Guitars sound violent in an almost Entombed sort of sense, the bass and drums are destructive and varied throughout the album. It's so expertly played and seamlessly linked together that its easy to fall into the rhythm of the album.

But the songs are so catchy and memorable that they'll stick with you after the fairly short runtime is up. "Life Is a Death Sentence" features a blistering opening section, replete with blast beats and quickly strummed guitar passages until the song slows down to incorporate a really memorable, noisy guitar riff. The dichotomy of speeds on "Parasite" is excellent, and it features one of Jones' most impassioned performances. The speedy guitar solos of "Violence Is Forever" are a personal highlight as well. The eight-minute closing track is fantastic, incorporating more metal subgenres to create a caustic, double-bass driven extended breakdown. The title track is one of the best songs Nails has ever written.

I was lucky enough to catch Nails live on their tour up the West Coast in support of this album, and their live show is pretty fucking nuts. If you get the chance, go see them. If you're a fan of, or simply interested in "heavier" music, this is a great album.

Excellent, badass, and pummeling metal record. Link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGGGh03jN4w ("You Will Never Be One of Us" video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJIT8mX2w-U ("Life Is a Death Sentence")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gkN8aH1G1I ("God's Cold Hands" live)

http://tinyurl.com/hjqfbah (MEGA)
http://tinyurl.com/jbusscj (FileFactory)