Nails: "Abandon All Life"

This is a collection of aggressive outbursts that are sometimes not allowed to seethe into anything more complete than the Tourette's like explosion. A song like "Tyrant" however does work a lot into under a minute, after repeat listens I still think the first four songs are still only just the first song.

"God's Cold Hands" is the first song given the time to develop into anything and is more of a straight forward windmill of blasty hardcore thrashing than runs its course into a slowed grind of a chug. The first hint of anything melodic in nature doesn't come until "Wide Open Wound" then the riff is just a monster, it's at this slower pace I think they are more effective that at a blinding whip neck where everything is just thrown right past you. The more power violencey grind core had never been my thing so if that is what is going on in the quicker bursts then I can at least say they give it a more compelling case than most.

Converge is the main band who's influence is felt but only if you strip away all ambiance and experimentation, along with any haunting melodies those guys are known for and just strip it down it is angriest grime. These guys have a Slayer album or three in their collection as well as a healthy sensibility in regards to death metal, as there are some little Morbid Angel like harmonics worked into the title track which is just over a minute of full blast ahead. I think moments like in "No Surrender" when the dip into death metal is something they need to explore further.

What the album lacks for me in dynamics it often compensates for in the rabid venom witch which they attack these songs like frothing wolves. However there are more crushing riffs than there are crushing songs. I think the weakness with this sort of thing to be frank is the songs are kept at a minute long Becuase they are angry riffs but there's not enough off them or they are too punishing to work any sort of progressions around, I think they band is playing to their strengths by doing this. Even then a song like "Pariah" doesn't work for me is because it is too straight forward and full speed ahead that's it's bland and one dimensional. The closer " Suum Cuique" is the exception to the rule and leaves me wondering why they didn't write like this for the entire album or if they had would it have lost the effect?

For the asking scoring I didn't even count the songs that were under a minutes as they just sounded like ideas for songs which needed to be developed and the first three play as just one song. This thing is so heavy it powered it's way up to a 6, but it's longevity in my iPod is dependent on if something equally heavy comes along with actual songs instead of some pretty cool ideas that are allowed to develop, it's like fucking a minuteman still doesn't get the job done no matter how big his dick is because how many girls can cum in under a minute? And if they could why? If something feels good don't you want it to feel good longer? Maybe the type of stamina required to pull this off is easier done in a twenty minute set rather than a forty minute one.