Review by Denis on July 14, 2003.

From the ashes of Betrayal and Azazel was born Nail Within. From the first band came Yishai Swearts (vocals) and the second one gathered once more Alex Schuster (guitars), Evil Haim (bass) and Miko (drums) who was eventually replaced by Salem's Nir Nakav . Recorded at 'Spiderhouse Studio' in Germany and produced by Harris Johns and Zeev Tananboim (Salem) this debut effort is offering some guest appearances by Mille Petrozza, Thomas Lindberg, Robert Gonella respectively from Kreator, At the Gates and Assassin. The band was completed by a second guitar player named Matan Cohen from Betzefer.

What runs through these 11, mostly short ( 2-3 minutes ) compositions, is a well executed type of metal that is rather technical but also raw and straightforward. The back cover calls it a trash assault. Even if they are quite thrilling and energetic, I found some compositions to be a bit similar and the lead vocals (death / scream) are kind of an acquired taste - still this album does have songs with a little something that makes them more interesting to my ears. 'Inhuman Conditions' has a pleasant slower / doom segment with great guitar work and solo. I like the vocals better on this one. Another good number is 'Under the Spell' for its clean and calm intro and theatrical voices here and there. The heaviest compositions are excellent too just like 'Elastic,' 'King Obscenity' and 'Last Nail.' I mean all the songs are heavy but these three stand out for sounding heavier. 'King Obscenity' starts actually with clean guitar but alternates with the heavy mode and at one point you can hear clean vocals too. This one and 'My Wallow' are both my preferred tracks on this record. The last one is the song with more variety in its structure, thus being more on the progressive side of Nail Within.

Bottom Line: The back cover says it all: "Nail Within want to share their raw, live sounding straightforward trash assault with you."

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8.5
Atmosphere: 6.5
Originality: 6.5
Production: 8.5
Overall: 7

Rating: 7.4 out of 10