Band:	Nails
Album:	Every Bridge Burning
Style:	Punk, Grindcore, Hardcore
Release date:	August 2024
A review by:	omne metallum

01. Imposing Will
02. Punishment Map
03. Every Bridge Burning
04. Give Me The Painkiller
05. Lacking The Ability To Process Empathy
06. Trapped
07. Made Up In Your Mind
08. Dehumanized
09. I Can't Turn It Off
10. No More Rivers To Cross

Crossing the flaming rubicon. 

If Simon & Garfunkel are the sound of silence, then Nails are the sound of violence. Tinnitus as a tune, listening to Nails is like listening to a concert in a tornado: a whirlwind of notes and distortion battering your senses at high speeds, before finishing just as you manage to make sense of the flurry of sensory stimulation. It's a unique listening experience for sure.  

After an eight-year gap to let the ringing in your ears ease from their last pummelling, Nails return with their fourth full length effort, Every Bridge Burning. While seventeen minutes usually qualifies as an EP, or even a single (for those of you that remember those), for Nails it qualifies as one of their longer efforts. Still, like The Ramones on meth, Nails manage to fit a lot into such a short amount of time. 

Every Bridge Burning picks up where You Will Never Be One Of Us left off, without sounding like the band are retreading old ground. Choosing to start with a song that eases off the accelerator in "Imposing Will" is a different, and enjoyable, change of pace. Hell, being able to count drumbeats on a Nails track is a rare, almost novel, event, but "No More Rivers To Cross" allows you to do this as it manages to balance turning the tempo down with not sacrificing any of the abrasive qualities of the music. 

This isn't to say Jones is slowing up, as there are plenty of tracks that will tear the skin off yourself as razor-sharp notes fly out at a rate of knots. "Made Up In Your Mind" slams out of the speakers and attacks your eardrums, while "Lacking The Ability To Process Empathy" enables you to live vicariously through music. With Kurt Ballou once again in the producer's chair, Every Bridge Burning is a collection of pinpoint-precision riffs in amongst a cacophony of noise that sounds like sonic anarchy; this collision of styles makes sense thanks to Ballou's work that enables listeners to comprehend the maelstrom assaulting their ears, with the likes of "Punishment Map" being more than the blur it could be with worse hands at the board. 

If there is a drawback to the album then it would be that no one but Jones is able to impress much personality into proceedings; without knowing that only Jones is left from previous line-ups, I wouldn't have known that much of the band is different. Then again, good luck being able to stand out in the blur. 

Every Bridge Burning is that quick, violent fix that refreshes your senses by overwhelming them into resetting. Nails once again walk that razor-thin line between noise and music, and damn is it enjoyable to hear.