REVIEW: Nails – Abandon All Life [2013]

Nails-Abandon-All-Life

Artist: Nails

Album: Abandon All Life

Labels: Southern Lord Records / Street Cleaner Records / Six Feet Under Records

Preview: Abandon All Life

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Have you ever had one of those depressing days where every negative experience you ever had, be it in the past or present, comes flooding back to the surface? Remembering those moments when someone gave you shit but you were too scared to stand up for yourself? Or those moments where someone fucked you over but you just swallowed your rage and kept it bottled up inside? Unless you are some kind of statue, the answer is yes, every human being has experienced these feelings, and if you let them, these negative emotions can overwhelm you, often reducing you to a emotional wreck. However there is no need to get sad for there is a cure for this illness, Californian Metal band Nails, though not recognized as licensed doctors, have prescribed the perfect medication for you, a healthy dose of extremely volatile and brutalizing rage in audio form. In a nutshell, their new release named ”Abandon All Life” is pure misanthropic anger in its finest form. Enforcing elements like monstrous drumming, acid spitting screams and grinding guitar slamming that seem to be coming from the infernal depths of hell itself. Nails, as people who had the pleasure of hearing their previous album ”Unsilent Death” know, do an amazing job of getting your blood to reach boiling point in a matter of microseconds. And if you add the agressive and well-written lyrics on top of that, ”Abandon All Life” will have you paying all those people that ever fucked you over a little visit, and your best friend Mr.Sledgehammer might just come along for the ride.

Upon pressing the play button, ”Abandon All Life” immediately starts to generate a hate-fueled maelstrom, pulling you towards it with such force and ferocity that it is impossible to break free from its grasp.
When the first track ”In Exodus” starts playing don’t expect any breathing room whatsoever, no intro of any kind, just pure straight psychopathic hate. If for some miraculous reason you dont feel your inner serial killer coming to the surface yet, wait until you get to the title track and the following ”No Surrender” and learn what real rage feels like. Not only the straightforward aggression and maliciousness will get under your skin, but also the demoralizing atmosphere and the strong nihilistic/anti-god undertone in the lyrics weigh heavily on the listener, songs such as ”Wide Open Wound” and ”Soom Cuique” will give you the sensation of being crushed by a rock the size of a planet. It is with these tracks that Nails tries a slower and deeper approach instead of treating your ears to a barrage of destruction, but as you probably know, these types of songs can be just as destructive, if not more.

A thing that got my attention right from the beginning is that the vocals have a slightly higher pitch, and that Todd Jones sounds twice as pissed than before (didn’t think that was possible), giving ”Abandon All Life” that sharp psychopatic edge. The album is just a few minutes longer than it’s predecessor, having a playtime of a full 17 minutes, this might seem short like hell but this is not unusual with Grindcore-like bands, and this length is probably a good thing because I dont think my heart could take much more of this intense destruction.

A piece of advice to those that are unfamiliar with this style of metal and exclusively listen to Deathcore and Hardcore; step out of your comfort zone for once and jam this album (pick up Unsilent Death while you’re at it) and be prepared to lay waste to everything that comes in your path with this unique fusion of Grindcore and Chaotic-Hardcore. Nails managed to improve on a style of music that I thought was already at its most intense, and made it twice as angry and fast, while also adding more atmosphere to it. ”Abandon All Life” has made me curious about what Nails will come up with next time, whatever it is, it is sure to be more faster, distorted, crustier and sludgier than the album before it. Without a doubt one of the angriest albums I ever heard, and listening to this in the car WILL cause you to break the speed limit , so be prepared for that.

Rating: 9.7/10

For fans of: Xibalba, Gaza, Early Graves, Torch Runner, All Pigs Must Die