You will never be one of them.
Nails is an American hardcore punk band from Oxnard, California. It was formed in 2009 by frontman Todd Jones, formerly the guitarist of Terror, along with bassist John Gianelli and drummer Taylor Young of Disgrace. They released their debut EP Obscene Humanity in 2009, followed by the studio albums Unsilent Death (2010), Abandon All Life (2013) and You Will Never Be One of Us (2016) and a split EP with Full of Hell. Nails have achieved widespread critical acclaim for their savage death metal-infused sound.
Tropes:
- Cover Version: None in studio as of yet but live you can expect a cover here and there. Some of their favorites include "Fear Of Napalm" by Terrorizer, "Sick Boy" by Charged GBH, "United Blood" and "Your Mistake" by Agnostic Front, "Ain't No Feeble Bastard" by Discharge, "Breakaway" by Straight Ahead and "Nothing But A Nightmare" by Rudimentary Peni.
- Death Metal: The band is strongly influenced by old-school Swedish death metal bands like Entombed, Dismember, and Bloodbath, which has led them to be grouped with the "Entomdedcore" scene.
- Defiant to the End: "Unsilent Death" is written from this perspective.
- Epic Rocking: "They Come Crawling Back" clocks in at 8:14, making it their longest track. Songs like "Lies" (3:37), "Unsilent Death" (2:42), "Depths" (3:47), "Suum Cuique" (5:21), "Violence Is Forever" (3:27) and "Wide Open Wound" (3:37) are not examples at all but feel like they are simply because most of their songs are less than two minutes long.
- Grindcore: Mixed with powerviolence, though they lean more on the powerviolence side of things.
- Hardcore Punk: Mostly of the Powerviolence and Crust Punk varieties.
- Metalcore: Of the Entombedcore variety. Arguably a Trope Codifier
- Metal Scream: Todd changes vocal styles very frequently. He's a pretty clear cut Type 1 on Obscene Humanity and Unsilent Death, changed to a very high pitched Type 3 on Abandon All Life and then brought it back down for You Will Never Be One Of Us which is a Type 1 that borders on being a Type 2 on some tracks.
- Miniscule Rocking: Almost their entire back catalogue. Typically, their albums are ten songs long and only contain two songs that aren't examples. Unsilent Death crams ten songs into about 14 minutes, Abandon All Life into just over 17 and You Will Never Be One Of Us into just under 22. Their debut EP Obscene Humanity fits 7 songs into 11 minutes.
- Their split with Full Of Hell consists of three songs (two from FOH and one from Nails) and is over in less than five minutes.
- Pretender Diss: "You Will Never Be One Of Us" is one aimed at musicians who act like rockstars, particularly in hardcore and heavy metal
- Record Producer: Kurt Ballou produced all of their full length albums and a few of their EPs and splits.
- Religion Rant Song: "God's Cold Hands", "Your God", "No Servant" and "I Will Not Follow" are some of the most blatant examples.
- Sampling: "Two Song Flexi" starts with some narration from what sounds like an old police training video."...drinking beer, smoking marijuana, listening to Judas Priest, and contemplating suicide."
- Sludge Metal: Dive into this style occasionally with songs like "Suum Cuique", "They Come Crawling Back" and "Wide Open Wound"
- Take That!: "You Will Never Be One Of Us" is a vicious one aimed at bands who try to live out the "rock star lifestyle," and "Parasite" is one towards drug culture.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Seems to be a running theme in their lyrics, especially on You Will Never Be One Of Us.
