It’s been a lengthy near-decade wait for a return from powerviolence stalwarts Nails, the brainchild of Todd Jones whose unmatched aggression has made the period of quiet seem all the quieter. No helicopter blade chopping guitars; no venomous rasp from its frontman. Suffice to say (in Jones’ own words) Every Bridge Burning is another instalment of controlled sonic TNT that’s “the delivery of the expectation”. You want a neck-breaker, you’re getting it, in droves. Droves that combine to a mere 17 minutes.
For all that time, you’re at the mercy of what the new look four-piece is serving you. Spoiler: it’s a lot! Since the departure of extreme music’s handy workhorse Taylor Young on drums, and long-term bassist John Gianelli in strange circumstances, there were three speculative paths. A lengthy hiatus? A complete breakup? Or a one-man solution with Jones handling every duty his heavy music nous grants him? He did none of these, instead recruiting Despise You’s Andrew Solis, Ulthar’s Shelbt Lermo and Warbringer’s Carlos Cruz to the guard and expanding Nails into a full-bodied version intentionally owing more to Jones’ list of musical influences.
Still, long-term Nails fans will not be disappointed. It’s the complete racket they can be devastated with as a reward for their patience. The band’s cornerstone of greyhound-speed power chord sequences and short, violent bursts that comprise full songs are all here, with production pulsating with the warmth and bloody gore of a ripped-out heart courtesy of Kurt Ballou’s soundboard. The world’s most modest agent of chaos is a major throughline in Nails’ discography, gradually fleshing out the back-to-grind basics of Unsilent Death through to Every Bridge Burning’s more metallic edge, via what he himself has been told as “the grossest, most antisocial, furious guitar tones” on Abandon All Life: the instrumental version of Jones’ powerhouse work ethic and love for all things heavy and brutish. Even the artwork, brandishing figures from the artwork You Will Never Be One of Us, continues the Nails lore.
Imposing Will also serves as the usual introductory showcase: the band waking up on the wrong side of the bed. As unrelenting as previous openers, its urgency does build to a groove with a beautifully crisp bass sound ringing. Punishment Map follows a similar method—feedback, pick scrapes and blastbeats giving way to a simplistic drum beat that’ll get the neck struts going—while the title track imagines Turnstile as a primetime Slayer. As an old member of beatdown kings Terror (and having produced Pain Into Power in 2022), Jones retains that knack for bopping pit-starters in all of these cuts. But Nails works as the dark yin to Terror’s yang, brutally direct in its threateningly assault over PMA-ready two-step, particularly with Punishment Map’s reference to serial killer Joe D’Angelo or the delightfully titled Lacking the Ability to Process Empathy—a chugged momentum builder that manages to slow some pace and retains more bite than bark.
Speaking of, it’s the array of various vocal and instrumental takes across Every Bridge Burning thatlend it a more polished quality. Presumably made for crowds to chant back from the pit abyss are Made Up In Your Mind, Dehumanized, or the galloping I Can’t Turn It Off, whose mix gives breathing space for individual members to shine. Elsewhere, single Give Me the Painkiller leans into thrash, fist in the air / swing your long hair type stuff (perhaps foreshadowed by Jones’ new look) and a shredder of a solo, while a foray into Southern sludge rounds off the hectic album expedition into the tar pits on No More Rivers to Cross, a relative shortened closer to usual ‘epics’ like Suum Cuique or They Come Crawling Back.
The agenda was clear from the offset. You’ll hear your Nails back with a bang, just with extra doses of thought-out (yet still crunchy and disgusting) metally elements that make the dizzying rippers all the more hasty. Listeners outside of Jones’ usual tricks will likely never understand how he fits multiple verses and something resembling a chorus within 30 seconds, but they may even stay for Every Bridge Burning’s musical hero worship to leave the minute-long scrappers for the diehards. Regardless, the pure adrenaline rush associated with Jones and co. makes this an unmistakable addition for their journey. An unbridled, throttling journey at that, just as the noise connoisseurs ordered.
For fans of: Pig Destroyer, Gatecreeper, Weekend Nachos
‘Every Bridge Burning’ by Nails is released on 30th August on Nuclear Blast Records.
Words by Elliot Burr
