Much of extreme metal can be long-winded, overly complicated, and nigh pretentious. The hardcore side of metal is more straightforward, relying on transparent punishment to get their point across.

No pretense. No façade. No mercy. Then there’s Nails.

This Californian four-piece meat thresher has been around since 2007, much to my own surprise. I assume, that along with myself, most folks awoke to the violence that is Nails with 2016’s You Will Never  Be One Of Us. The title track of that record became a benchmark of compressed aggression, the likes of which haven’t been seen since Napalm Death was in their heyday. In fact, Nails is probably the closest the newer generation will get to the grindcore personage of Napalm Death.

Their latest effort Every Bridge Burning is everything you’d expect from a noise-adjacent, hardcore/grindcore laced powerviolence band. Sub-3-minute tracks, buzzsaw guitar tones, chunky beatdown arrangements, barked near-incomprehensible vocals (even by extreme metal/hardcore sensibilities), and the nuance of a bloody sledgehammer to the jaw.

The opening track and single “Imposing Will” is 90 seconds of Nails doing what they do best, beat you into the ground. The title track “Every Bridge Burning” is more frenetic, and at nearly 2 minutes, is at the higher end of the track lengths. So far so good. The guitar solo on “Give Me The Painkiller” was a welcome surprise. At a blistering 48 seconds, “Trapped” is a garrote to the neck. For someone who is used to the five-ish minute grandiosity of tech-death and symphonic deathcore, to be slapped in the face with the ferocity of “Trapped” was certainly a wake-up call to consume more of this genre.

The true gem of this record is “Lacking The Ability To Process Empathy. I am a sucker for longer song titles that evoke imagery or an aesthetic, and this title shot right to the greats. It’s so on-brand for Nails and sits right up there with “You Will Never Be One of Us”. The track itself is more elephantine than frantic, and the neck-shattering headbanging comes as an involuntary reaction. The album closer “No More Rivers To Cross” continues the misanthropic themes of Every Bridge Burning and chooses to veer more strongly into the slower pummeling side of the genre. The riffs and arrangements feel almost old-school and nostalgic in their phrasing and will be a treat for those who are fans of the familiar tropes of older hardcore.

While Every Bridge Burning is a solid slab of beef, I was left a bit wanting, especially coming off the high of listening to You Will Never Be One Of Us. The production differences go a long way in explaining my perceived lack of a similar level of enjoyment. While You Will Never Be One of Us felt dense to the point of claustrophobic bliss, Every Bridge Burning felt like the mix was more spacious with the instruments giving much more headroom to breathe. While this is usually a good thing for more technical note-y genres, much of the aggression is lost with a wider mix. Coupled with the mid-focused buzzsaw guitar tones a la Fuming Mouth, more recently End, and other Entomed-core HM2-style hardcore bands, the tracks lost the bulk required to make this genre a visceral experience.

You get what you paid for with Every Bridge Burning. No nonsense, violent abrasive hardcore with very little subtlety and a lot of distilled hatred. For those who want MORE from their extreme metal, Nails won’t get you very far. For those who like to throw stuff around and enjoy being angry, this record is for you!