Nails / Skin Like Iron, split

Nails‘ 2010 release, Unsilent Death was everything the opposite of silent and calm. The blasting grindcore those dudes spewed forth through crusty amps was fucking awesome and fans eagerly awaiting their next long player have two new offerings from the band on this split release. They just need to make it through two tracks from California’s Skin Like Iron first.

“Disappear” leads things off with abrasive, melodic hardcore from Skin Like Iron. The track is pretty decent with solid hardcore riffing, plenty of reverb and harshly screamed vocals. The second song, “The Parade” from the first half of this split is in the same vein as the first, but perhaps a bit more melodic in its crashing of guitars and drums. Both tracks are decent enough and no offense to these guys (their contributions are solid enough), but it’s the Nails portion of the split that I am really drooling for. Let’s get to it.

“Annihilation” is the first of the band’s two offerings on their half of the split and it is chock full of down-tuned, crunchy mayhem. At nearly three minutes in length the track is right in line with what we heard on Unsilent Death — buzzsaw guitars, a little old school Swedish death metal flavor and bruising rhythms. The second track, however, is the near opposite. Exploding through 25 seconds of unrestrained grind, Nails show us that no matter how much death metal leaks into their sound, they still know how to bring the grind. And bring it they do. Hot damn!

Four songs ain’t much to get real excited about, especially if you were really only looking forward to two of them, but the split still serves as a quick snack for those of you (much like me) rabidly awaiting the next full-length from Nails.