Dusting Off a Cassette Pt. 29: Nailbomb: Proud to Commit Commercial Suicide

Nailbomb is a side project of Max Cavalera, then of Sepultura, and Alex Newport of Fudge Tunnel. The band formed in the early 1990's and released one full length album and a live album, along with a live DVD. The band should have been the first clue that Max was a bit of a trendwhore as it featured a sound more like Ministry than Sepultura, more of an industrial thrash attack. This particular album was a bit of a disappointment as it is the live album.

Nailbomb was a decent side project. Typically, side projects should provide a creative outlet that the individual members cannot have in their main bands. Nailbomb is a good example as it allowed for Max to show off his industrial metal influences. However, Sepultura's sound changed so often that it's not clear why he could not attempt to sway the band's musical style in that direction. It would have been pretty awful and Sepultura fans would have abandoned the band sooner, but it was doable.

As previously mentioned, this is the live album, and thus the sound quality is not particularly great. No matter though, as industrial metal has never been exactly subtle. Max has always been a dynamic live performer, and that is still evident here. Nevertheless, I would have preferred the studio version of a lot of these songs. This isn't bad, it's just that I don't care a whole lot for live albums. At the time I bought it, I was unaware that this was the live album.

I first heard of Nailbomb when I was getting into Sepultura but never really checked them out. I heard the band for the first time on the soundtrack to the godawful movie To Die For. This is the first time I went and picked something out though. I may check out the studio album, just to have a clearer idea of the songs. This will do in the meantime. Passable.