Review: Nails – Every Bridge Burning

September 6, 2024

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When You Will Never Be One Of Us ended with the apocalyptic “They Come Crawling Back,” the parting image of Nails‘ full-length discography for almost a decade was that of a massive, flaming colossus violently crashing to the ground—8 minutes of sludge-dirging that intertwined the disparate threads of Nails’ influences, and was in many ways the sort of thing that ends a career perfectly.

It didn’t though, of course. Careers are never so neat. In the aftermath we’d get a song on a split 7″ with Full Of Hell, as well as the insanely good I Don’t Want To Know You / Endless Resistance single, but in terms of solo full-lengths Nails has been silent for almost 10 years. Enter Every Bridge Burning.

8 years is a long time, especially in music. Nails came to prominence at a time when the sound they helped embody was white hot—an emergent strain of metallic hardcore immersed in the sounds of deathgrind, sludge metal, noise and powerviolence. All Pigs Must Die, Trap Them, Full Of Hell, Gaza, The Secret, Dead In The Dirt, Cursed—Nails was associated with this sound but always transcended it in their coverage and notoriety. For a moment Nails were the most prominent act in extreme music. 8 years later, those bands who’ve stayed together and remained relevant have had to evolve their sound. Every Bridge Burning on the other hand is, for better or worse, a record that sounds like it could have came out the day after You Will Never Be One Of Us released.

For all of frontman Todd Jones’ posturing about wanting to “make music that makes people uncomfortable,” this belies the fact that understated pop sensibilities are at the heart of a lot of Nails’ best songs. That Nails eclipsed so many of their contemporaries in popularity isn’t surprising given just how infectious, immediate and deftly structured songs like “Tyrant,” “Unsilent Death” and “God’s Cold Hands” were. The title track from Every Bridge Burning embodies this, with its ultraviolent, skin-peeling instrumentation juxtaposed against these bark-and-call dueling vocals making it an immediate highlight. The shifting tempo and strumming pattern highlights the project’s evergreen dynamism, something that’s been a massive factor in their appeal since Unsilent Death.

Comparitively, opening track “Imposing Will” is not incredibly noteworthy, reintroducing Nails with an intense song but one that’s ultimately lacking a strong identity. In the tracklisting it seems placed to shake off any allegations of ring rust, a strong “fuck you, we’re here and we can still go,” but as a song itself it isn’t too noteworthy. “Punishment Map” meanwhile sounds like a more measured approach towards a track like “I Don’t Want To Know You,” very solid.

“Give Me The Painkiller” has an unrelenting pace, with an insanely catchy opening riff that gives way to these gargled, spite-fueled vocals. A genuine career highlight. “Lacking The Ability To Process Empathy” has a more understated foundation, a song mostly built around this little chugged triplet that sprawls out into other sections of the track. Normally Nails are pretty good at hiding the mechanics and building blocks of their songs, but “Lacking The Ability To Process Empathy” feels a little too structured and restrained. This isn’t inherently a negative though, and paired with the title would be quite cogent—the title implying a sort of inhuman distance. It feels in many ways like an affectation of the idea of a Nails song, and has a disquieting feel as a result. A very unique delivery, stylistically.

“Trapped” is almost an inversion of this, a brief and brisk track that feels like it’s going to fly off the rails at any moment, ramping up in intensity and tempo until its sudden, sharp end, like someone yanking the plug out of a life support machine. “Made Up Your Mind” feels like a continuation of that idea, but with an even catchier, more considered structure alongside a refrain that hits hard and stays in your head.

“Dehumanised'”s blast of feedback gives way to a manic track with my favourite drum performance on the whole record. “I Can’t Turn It Off” is one of the less interesting tracks, with its more trundling pattern making the song feel more pedestrian in comparison; at no point does the song feel like it possesses the threat or intensity others do, and its soloing near the end is a bit dry.

“No More Rivers To Cross” is familiar—the sludge-dirge closer that combines the barbarism and intensity of the rest of the album, but concentrated and measured; every note sounds overstuffed with bile and discontent, ready to burst. It’s one of the better tracks on the record, and ripping in its own right, but kind of highlights how Every Bridge Burning is the sound of a band at a standstill, and is in some ways regressive. Nails still are, for better or worse, the Nails of 2016. The evolution from Unsilent Death to You Will Never Be One Of Us isn’t expanded upon or continued, and in many ways that’s fine. What Every Bridge Burning is, however, is really fucking solid, and that’s all it ever needed to be.