Label - Nuclear Blast Records
Release Date - 30th August 2024
Words- Tony Bliss
Although by all accounts a thoroughly nice chap, Nails mastermind Todd Jones is also one angry dude. To be fair, with the ever-declining state of our world we should all have carte blanche to scream ourselves bloody whenever we feel like it nowadays, however, Nails have remained the last word in 21st-century hatred even as far back as the grindy, spree-killer-like antics of their 2010 debut Unsilent Death. Blessing us with a couple of modern classics with Abandon All Life and 2016’s Nuclear Blast entree 'You Will Never Be One Of Us' - but pretty much radio silence from then until now - the band have been missing for a good minute. But fear not, despite beginning a new era for Nails 'Every Bridge Burning' is still typified by their staunch commitment to aural violence, with a few nifty hints at evolution unfolding as they go.
With tracks coming in routinely under / just over the sixty-second mark, the contents of this eighteen minutes is still akin to be being plunged into a real-life Texas Chainsaw scenario, the opening triumvirate of ‘Imposing Will’, ‘Punishment Map’ and the title track juggling all the blunt force ‘n’ serrated edge blows from hardcore and extreme metal’s collective arsenal and ramped up tenfold by that signature Nails special sauce of distilled fury. ‘Give Me The Painkiller’ is where the band really usher in a new talking point, its blackened thrash meets Motorhead gone (even more) feral approach pulled off with rampant aplomb, and an almost disordered sense of rock ‘n’ roll fun. By contrast, ‘Lacking The Ability To Process Empathy’ is a bile-drenched, groove-driven death metal ear mauling.
As long time fans will know, cuts like the thirty eight second mini-tune ‘Trapped’ are tossed our way as brief hors d’oeuvres of claustrophobic horror, however there’s no denying that these pithy ragers (‘Made Up In Your Mind’, ‘Dehumanized’) aren’t just as thrilling and murderous as the rest, ‘I Can’t Turn It Off’ keeping it a tad more traditional before the end as the band enter full throttle hardcore-punk mode, then bowing out on the final curveball of ‘No More Rivers To Cross’ with it’s Iommi-worship turbo-blues / Celtic Frost nastiness. They’re still livid, they’re still brilliant, and there are still very few bands on the planet that do it quite as well as Nails.
Welcome back, lads.
8.5/10
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