Nails - Every Bridge Burning (2024) Hi-Res

Nails—the band whose fast-'n'-heavy sound is so innately pulverizing that it feels pointless to try and contain it within rigid sub-genres like grindcore, powerviolence, and death metal. Their breakdowns are nasty enough to go head-to-head with any of the most bludgeoning bands in hardcore. Their fast songs are blazing enough to make Napalm Death sound like they're traveling at the speed limit. On their first album in eight years, Every Bridge Burning, frontman-songwriter Todd Jones returns with a new lineup while also rekindling exactly what made Nails one of the most feared heavy bands of the previous decade.

Between 2010's dastardly Unsilent Death and 2016's ear-shattering You Will Never Be One of Us, Nails' harsh sound became increasingly refined but no less savage. On Every Bridge Burning, their antagonism toward everything and everyone hasn't lessened, yet the album's murderous sound is perhaps a sliver more hospitable than on previous outings. The guitar licks on "Give Me the Painkiller" and "I Can't Turn It Off" are Nails' most overt nods to Bay Area thrash-metal, going beyond the brunt force of Slayer and pulling in a dash of Metallica's fast-fingered playfulness. Meanwhile, the psychopathically heavy yet still hollerable chorus in "Lacking the Ability to Process Empathy" is, by Nails' standards, an anthem.

However, a tongue-flicking solo here and a lyrically discernible refrain there are the only brief reprieves that Nails have to offer. Every other moment on this record is a scalding onslaught. The phlegmy shrieks in "Made Up In Your Mind" sound like Jones tracked his vocals while actively undergoing an exorcism. The calamitous groove that cracks open "Imposing Will" is fit for a mosh pit where hammers fall from the ceiling like encore confetti. And like all Nails albums, Every Bridge Burning ends with a slow-burning sludge trudge that lays the unwieldy beast to rest once again. For now.