Review by Michael on August 11, 2024.

Californian grindcore quartet Nails is finally back with their latest album Every Bridge Burning and what I can say after listening is that this is a direct continuation of the 2016 one You Will Never Be One Of Us. The song structures are quite similar to that album, blast beat attacks compared with some outbursts of modern-sounding grindcore and then again some more catchy parts that make the whole thing easier to listen to especially when the guys reduce the tempo a little bit in favor of some more groove; that's when the songs become quite interesting.

Let's take the title track as an example of that. First of all, you get some heavy thrashing with barking vocals and no significant song structure but after half of the song, they reduce the tempo and groove through the shit. This is really fun to listen to and a good pacegiver for running. Maybe the German track and field athletes should have listened to it during the Olympic games…. 'Give Me The Painkiller' is the biggest surprise for me. Why? Well, this is more rock n´roll than you might expect. The drumming and the guitar sound a lot like good old Motörhead meets Megadeth (only on speed and low tuned, of course). The vocals don't have any similarity to Lemmy of course because this would sound strange indeed. And with 2:44 on the clock, it gets the silver medal for the longest-running time on the album. In total contrast to this one is the next song 'Lacking The Ability To Process Empathy' (wonderful title, reminds me of a person I wouldn't even drink a cold chamomile tea with but rather die of thirst). A slow creeping, hateful song with some galloping drums and disgusting vocals. You can almost grab the hate Todd Jones is spreading here. Because of the slowness, you can also see that the guys are somewhat originated in the hardcore scene. This one is a really ugly crowbar in your face. 'Trapped', 'Made Up In Your Mind' and 'Dehumanized' are three more super aggressive and violent songs and come together to a running time of 2:02 (!). You can see there is no time to breathe. This is a pure grindcore inferno which reminds me of good old Nasum stuff. They are so full of energy and negativity that it is a pure joy to suck up this mayhemic atmosphere and beat something up. Of course, only in my imagination! 'I Can´t Turn It Off' is another groovier song with a lot of thrash influences, I would say more than on the rest of the album. If the guitars weren’t tuned down and the vocals were not like they are, this might sound like Exodus, I guess. That's a really good one and with 2:19 the song gets the bronze medal for running time. So now we're all waiting for the winner, aren’t we? It is 'No More Rivers To Cross' with 3:14. The reason the song lasts that unbelievably long is because it is a very viscous song that has no really fast parts. The song lives from its slow structures which sound sinister and threatening. In my opinion, it may not be the best one on Every Bridge Burning but it is very effective though. 

So welcome back Nails, even if the album has only the running time of an EP for most other bands (17:44) and it is more than 4 minutes shorter than its predecessor but when all is said and done like a cool Swedish band once said, 'all is said and done'. 

Rating: 8 out of 10