Nails

Blending grindcore, crust-punk, and death metal, the American power-violence quartet NAILS formed in the early 2010s and rapidly claimed prominence within the extreme metal underground through its ferocious sound and ferocious performances. Prior to issuing its widely praised second album Abandon All Life, the group signed with Southern Lord, then shifted to Nuclear Blast for the 2016 release You Will Never Be One of Us. After unveiling the brutal single “I Don’t Want to Know You” in 2019, the band entered an indefinite hiatus the next year. With a new lineup in place, NAILS resurfaced in 2024 via its second Nuclear Blast effort, Every Bridge Burning.

Established in Southern California by vocalist and former Terror guitarist Todd Jones alongside bassist John Gianelli and drummer Taylor Young, the band issued its debut EP Obscene Humanity in 2009 and followed it with the full-length Unsilent Death in 2010; both later reached broader audiences through Southern Lord reissues. The label also put out the hyper-intense and ultra-compact second album Abandon All Life in 2013, while Nuclear Blast handled the third album You Will Never Be One of Us three years afterward. A split 7" with Full of Hell appeared later in 2016, and the standalone single “I Don’t Want to Know You” arrived in 2019. Gianelli and Young departed in 2020, leaving Jones as the sole remaining member.

Jones tracked the fourth album Every Bridge Burning in 2023 with Ulthar’s Shelby Lermo, Warbringer’s Carlos Cruz, and Apparition’s Andrew Solis. Issued in August 2024, the immediate and heavily riff-driven set featured the singles “Imposing Will,” “Give Me the Painkiller,” and “Lacking the Ability to Process Empathy.”