PAGE UPDATED IN 2026
Reviewed:
- Unsilent Death (2010)
- Abandon All Life (2013)
- You Will Never Be One of Us (2016)
- Every Bridge Burning (2024)
UNSILENT DEATH 2010 (Southern Lord)
- Standouts: Everything.
I've decided to update this page from 8 years ago because Nails' 2024 album Every Bridge Burning has been out nearly 2 years already, and I still haven't reviewed it! Anyhow, Nails' 2010 debut, Unsilent Death, "goes hard" as they say. All their albums do in fact. They are masters of so-called "powerviolence", a genre I wasn't familiar with until I first started listening to this band - basically a harsher take on hardcore punk, with grindcore and metal influences thrown in - d-beat, sludge, death metal, beatdown hardcore... I can hear aspects of all this stuff on here.
Really, Unsilent Death is just under 14 minutes (!!) of all-out fucking RAGE in musical form. It's not the absolute heaviest album I've ever heard, it's more about the delivery of said rage that makes Nails so goddamn savage. The music sounds kinda sloppy at surface level, but the songs are still calculated to some degree. Any changes in pacing/breakdowns etc. have been scattered evenly throughout the insanely short length of the album. Even the use of guitar amp feedback feels intentional. And even though the 10 songs only range from 30 seconds to 3 minutes in length, it's surprising how many riffs and breakdowns they manage to cram into these tracks. You're getting fast, punchy riffage and blast beat drums at times ('Conform', 'Traitor', 'Your God' etc.). You're also getting crushingly heavy groovy, catchy riffs too ('Suffering Soul', 'Unsilent Death' etc.). And you'll even hear sludgy, doomy stuff as well ('Depths'). Like I said, the variety is surprising given how bloody short this album is! Todd Jones only has 1 approach to his vocals, and that's to be as throat-shreddingly harsh and aggressive as possible!
Unsilent Death is a bulldozer of noise. There's not really a lot else to say. It's about as angry and intense as music gets. It's a ridiculously short album, yes, but as we've learned with every Nails album at this point, they're all stupidly short in length. But is that even really a problem? Right now they have 4 albums under their belt and I can listen to all of them in within a single gym session - and they make for perfect workout music. I feel like Unsilent Death is already a classic of it's subgenre, and if it isn't, it's destined to be.
Adam's rating: 8.9/10
ABANDON ALL LIFE 2013 (Southern Lord)
- Standouts: All, but especially 'Wide Open Wound'
This album picks up right where Unsilent Death left off. The formula's the same, but there's subtle differences here and there to separate Abandon All Life from it's predecessor. I'd argue that the production is arguably better this time around; the album has this piercingly heavy and loud sound whilst retaining the grittiness of the debut. It's not a wildly-different sounding album to it's predecessor, but it's different enough for me to notice - in a good way. Also, Todd Jones' vocals are a tad higher-pitched and even more scratchy now, to the point where he really sounds like he's straining his chords! He sounds even more unhinged because of it. As far as the music goes however, it's very similar of course. There's a bit less use of guitar feedback this time around, and the album is a whopping 17 MINUTES LONG, an entire 3 AND A HALF-ISH MINUTES LONGER than Unsilent Death!! And in that time they pack in more riffs, more blast beats, more breakdowns, more brutality! Hell, the last track, the sludgy-as-all-hell 'Suum Cuique' lasts more than 5 minutes! And I particularly like the slidey riff near the end of the title track, sorta reminds me of Gojira! Really though, it's hard to really call the music on this album "better" than what the debut had to offer. I find it to be as good, but the subtle production enhancements combined with the crazier vocals make it that teensy little bit more enjoyable for me!
There's only 1 real way Nails can fuck up on their records, and it's if they ever tone down the RAGE... which they certainly didn't do here, as evidenced by the brutality of the songs within Abandon All Life! Once again, Nails totally NAIL (sorry!) their powerviolence/grindcore schtick here.
Adam's rating: 9/10
YOU WILL NEVER BE ONE US 2016 (Nuclear Blast)
- Standouts: All!
I didn't get into Nails until 2017 when I saw them at the indoor Damnation Festival in Leeds. From what I remember, it was so goddamn crowded in that hall that I was wedged in amongst everyone all the way to the bar. The air was disgustingly sweaty and I could barely see the stage because just about everyone in attendance at the festival was watching Nails. But I do recall the performance being pretty awesome, which is why I immediately bought all 3 of their albums afterwards. 2016's You Will Never Be One of Us was their most recent at the time, and I remember listening to this one the most back then. 8 years have passed, so is it still my go-to Nails album?
Erm, well, I think this one's about as good as either of the previous 2 - or at least on par! Again, the album is very similar musically, which is a good thing. Also true is the fact there's very subtle differences within the production. I feel like this album manages to sound a tad more savage than Abandon All Life, even if I can't pinpoint why exactly this is! There's something about the guitars combined with the relentless drumming that gives the album this buzzsaw-like tone! I don't think the songs are necessarily heavier or more extreme than anything from the last 2 records, but there's definitely something about You Will Never Be One of Us that makes it just a little bit more hard-hitting. As if the last 2 weren't hard-hitting enough! Also like the previous couple, You Will Never Be One of Us is over before you know it. I mean, they managed to stretch this one out to 21 minutes, but in the case of most other bands, 21 minutes is still EP length! Funnily enough, the last track on the album, 'They Come Crawling Back' is over 8 minutes long, and is a sludgy, doomy and atmospheric contrast to the rest of the skull-crushing, short songs on here. The quality of the songs is once again as good as their previous material; aside from the aforementioned slow and doomy 'They Come Crawling Back', the rest of the album brings the high-octane grindcore sound the band are known for. Expect more fast and punishing songs mixed in with crushingly heavy mid-tempo ones, with breakdowns and hints of groove in the riffs. And Jones' vocal performance is strikingly similar here to how they were on Abandon All Life. Still raw and throat-shredding; not better, but certainly not worse.
It's really hard to talk in detail about Nails' albums. I'm sat here right now thinking what the fuck else to say! I managed to review in detail discographies from formulaic bands like Motorhead and AC/DC (not that I fully agree with the whole "Oh, they make the same album over and over again." rhetoric, because most of the people who spout that crap haven't actually listened to said artist's entire catalogue, at least in my experience), yet I'm finding this particular band quite a challenge to write about! All you need to know is that Nails are one of the gold-standard bands of grindcore/powerviolence. It's not one of my personal favourite extreme subgenres, but I can't help but love these guys. Yeah their albums are short, but they don't need to be longer anyway. It's all about quality over quantity people, quality over quantity!
Adam's rating: 9/10
EVERY BRIDGE BURNING 2024 (Nuclear Blast)
- Standouts: This whole album is 17 minutes long, so there's no excuse for any filler!
Well, quality over quantity is certainly true, because there was an 8 year gap between Every Bridge Burning and You Will Never Be One of Us! To be honest, I kinda fell off the Nails train for several years because of this. I played the shit out of this band for a long time when I discovered them up until the Covid days, but between Unsilent Death, Abandon All Life and You Will Never Be One of Us, there's less an hour of music in total! So I guess I just grew tired of listening to those albums over and over, and it wasn't until Every Bridge Burning finally saw the light of day in 2024 that I really started listening to Nails again.
As you can probably tell then, I haven't listened to this one as much as I have the rest of the catalogue. But I can safely say that if you liked any of the previous material, you're guaranteed to like this as well. Unlike the last record, there's no lengthy set piece song on here (the longest, 'No More Rivers to Cross', is 3 minutes) and the album is predictably short again at just 17 minutes - but at this point it's what you expect from Nails. And it certainly doesn't affect the overall enjoyment of the album, because Every Bridge Burning is full of all the bone-shattering grindcore you want from this band. I think the production this time is, well, not clean - but the drums definitely have a beefier, fuller sound that is slightly kinder on the ears than what we got on the last couple of records. The guitar tones alongside Todd Jones' nasty vocals are once again top-notch, but there's something about the drum sound here that makes this album less of a force to be reckoned with. It's a really minor gripe, because the album is most definitely savage enough to my ears - I just think that overall if I had to call of these 4 records the "least heavy", it'd probably be this one. It's not the songs, because the brutality of the riffage, breakdowns and blast beats is on par with anything that came before, it's purely a production-related shenanigan.
So it's my least favourite of the 4 then, and that's mainly due to a tiny flaw in the mixing. I think some bias plays a part too, because I spent so much time with the first 3 albums for at least 3 or 4 years long before Every Bridge Burning even existed. Truthfully though, I can stick this on right after the other 3 and not really notice any serious drop in quality. I certainly wouldn't argue with anyone if they told me this was their favourite Nails album.
Adam's rating: 8.2/10
