Originally reviewed here.
It was with a lot of trepidation that I agreed to take a listen to this release. I was not familiar with Nails before so I had to look them up. What I found concerned me even more. Nails is a hardcore band. I do not care much for hardcore music. Nails is often associated with Converge. I really do not care for Converge. And Nails is on Southern Lord Records. With the exception of Lair of the Minotaur, I have never really cared for that label. But I did agree to give this a shot, and the fact that the release is three songs from an upcoming seven inch, I figured it would not be too painful. I can probably handle ten to fifteen minutes of hardcore.
Yes I can. This is a very impressive release, which is likely made better by the fact that it is so short. I am not sure I could listen to a full album of this, but I can definitely listen to these three songs.
This is a short but very intense release of metallic hardcore. And no, not metalcore in the sense of Avenged Sevenfold, etc. It is all pummeling riffing, pounding drums, and shrieked vocals. The third track "Lies" is the highlight as it features a very quick guitar solo and one hell of a breakdown leading to the end of the release.
The complaints are typical for this style of hardcore. There is a bit of a lack of dynamics, particularly with the vocalist. He shrieks all the way through. Other than the closing breakdown, there is a lack of any real tempo shift throughout the runtime. And the first two tracks are basically the same song. The third track stands out due to the soloing and the tempo shift but it basically starts the same way as well.
This is not likely something I would listen to often, but I can see some good things in it.
