Fear, Emptiness, Decibel: Nailsed It!

December 4th, 2014 at 4:30pm
MetalSucks

When the February Decibel comes out, it’ll (definitely, if you’re a subscriber) contain our 50^th flexi disc: Nails, ripping through two new songs recorded exclusively for us: “Among the Arches of Intolerance” (I haven’t read the lyrics, but am holding out hope that’s a McDonald’s reference) and “In Pain” (without question a McDonald’s reference—take it from a McRib connoisseur). That’s a pretty nice round number, if we do say so ourselves—we always say so ourselves—and it’s a good opportunity to thank the labels and artists who have made the otherwise extremely arduous task of mass-producing flexi discs from 2011 to 2015 so gratifying. Fourteen of those 50 are already sold out—not counting the über-limited edition Pig Destroyer flexi we passed out gratis at the 100^th issue show—so we should also thank you guys in particular for supporting the resurrection of a very old-school concept.

Anyway, if you want to see what Nails are up to well in advance of the follow-up to 2013’s insanely acclaimed Abandon All Life—which should drop this fall on Nuclear Blast, again with Converge’s Kurt Ballou at the boards—subscribe by Monday, December 8 at 9 a.m. EST to ensure that you receive said flexi. In the meantime, I’ll count down my five (not already sold out) favorites in the Series thus far; feel free to be wrong and disagree!

5) Lamb of God, “Hit the Wall”

I just feel bad because this is the only one of the first eight that isn’t sold out. Also: You know how Lamb of God songs sound like Lamb of God songs? This is one of those occasions!

4) In Solitude, “Mother of Mercy”

If we’re gonna double down on your band with a cover story and flexi in the same issue, you better step up on the latter. This brooding Samhain cover takes you out of shitty-ass 2015 for a very welcome three minutes and 18 seconds. I will gladly accept 1986 as my own time in hell.

3) Iron Reagan, “Spoiled Identity EP”

There’s room for about seven minutes of music on these things. Perfect EP length for an unpretentious crossover gang like IR. The Clarence Boddicker sample is only like the fifth best thing about this.

2) Cretin, “Fourteen”

Matthew Widener: tied for best storyteller in extreme music with J.R. Hayes. Yes, I’m too weakened to pick just one (as the next blurb will underscore).