You Will Never Be One of Us is the latest album from power violence band Nails out on Nuclear Blast. The album title could have meant no other band will match the sheer ferocity that this album is soaked in. Vocalist Todd Jones and the band rage for 21 minutes almost non-stop. It reminds me of the best of Napalm Death with Converge thrown in and no progressive filler to make us feel good about metal. Beneath all of the wrath is just more wrath. The lyrics run the gamut of backstabbing friends, to social media whores, to terror and death. It’s angry and bleak; it’s what you would expect.
The final track, “They Come Crawling Back” is an eight minute long masterpiece of fiery violence-fuelled aggression and groove. Kurt Ballou was the producer and it shows: it’ s a full sound with vocals that could strip paint. Nothing gets buried in the mix and it sounds utterly devastating on a good pair of headphones. The rhythm section is of particular note: drummer Taylor Young and bassist John Gianelli keep the misery from going off the rails with solid performances. Both are appropriately levelled in the mix to complement the guitars perfectly.
Watching the studio diaries of the making of this album, drummer Taylor Young made the following comments that say it all really: “As hard as possible at all times with the maximum possible outcome” and “I won’t say we skip the boring parts of genres that we like but that’s kind of what we do.” This last quote is particularly poignant. This is exactly what Nails is, all of the heaviest no-nonsense riffs eschewing interludes and progression to get right to the dreary aggressively depressing outlook on life with crushingly great metal. Short review for a short album with no bullshit and no filler in this review either.
