Nails - "Abandon All Life" CD

 "Abandon All Life", the second album from American black/death/doom/grindcore merchants Nails, certainly economizes. It's 10 songs in a meager 17 minutes, but I swear there's at least an hour's worth of hate in those brief 17 minutes. Recorded by Kurt Ballou (Converge), who ably handles the ear-splitting highs and grisly lows, this is a seriously intense recording.

"Abandon All Life" sounds like a family being violently hacked to bits, crushing bones and explosive blows alongside blood-curdling screams and thuds. Track titles aren't too important, as this flows together as one extended piece of evil audio carnage. Devastating and riveting, Nails make most metal acts sound like kindergardeners. This is the most violent, aggressive recording I've heard in some time. All hail Nails.

Southern Lord

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Nails - "Unsilent Death" CD

Now this is some formidable heaviness. Hailing from Southern California, this trio's debut is as concise as it is destructive. 10 songs here, 13 minutes. But perhaps brevity is good here, as there's no room to breathe for these 13 intense, apocalyptic minutes. Opening with the 30-second grindcore bloodclot of "Conform", it's sink or swim with these dudes. Hah! "Scum Will Rise" isn't any slower -- a raging fireball of gutteral post-punk, post-metal, post-hardcore nihilism. This is not for the faint of heart. Awesome and powerful. (Southern Lord)

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