Nails
Support: Full of Hell, God's Hate, Eternal Sleep
Date: Sunday June 19th, 2016
Venue: the Hard Luck Bar in Toronto, Ontario

I was really worried about this show. Not because I'm afraid of hardcore-beatdown shows. I can handle myself there. I was really worried because it was booked at such a small venue. Nails have a huge buzz around them right now and I've never seen more than a hundred people at the Hard Luck Bar. According to Facebook over four hundred people were "going" to this show, which I know something to base anything off of but still. The stage is really low there and I planned on staying near the back. So I was worried that would impair my fun.

Then I checked my ticket and saw that it was an all-ages show. So I knew there'd be a lot of highschool scene kids there. But, it would be fun to see some girl in a "I dunno, Darkthrones?" t-shirt get inadvertently caught up in an invisible ninja battle.

I got there in time to find out they were sold out of the size of the one Nails t-shirt I wanted (Unsilent Death cover art) and then Eternal Sleep started up. Musically they were really good but their vocalist sucked. They were basically a Harms Way clone. I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of Harms Way and Nails clones over the next few years. They played six songs in about twenty minutes and the only title I caught was Never Again A Harder Goodbye.

God's Hate actually went on ten minutes earlier than posted, which really worked fine for me. They were terrible. I heard Krisiun vocals with Hatebreed music. They played for about twenty minutes and I think they did six or seven songs. I caught a few titles.

God’s Hate
1. Extermination
2. Admission of Guilt
3. Violent Procreation
4. ?
5. ?
6. ?
7. Divine Injustice

So after two bands that didn't interest me in any way I was at least interested in seeing Full of Hell. I didn't think that collaboration album they did with the Body a few months ago was very good. But people seem to like them. I felt like sitting down but then I got up. They went on fifteen minutes early so time was at least on my side. They were really cool but a half an hour was a bit much. Fifteen minutes of their set was feedback. I did like that more than their songs. But I’m a feedback junkie. I didn’t get any song titles. The singer mentioned a few (I think) but he was just growling or yelling them. I liked them but I won’t buy any of their albums. I made that mistake with Maruta last year.

So yeah, I'm really surprised with all the buzz surrounding Nails that this show didn't get moved to a bigger place. I'm not sure what the next step up from the Hard Luck Bar is in Toronto. They're not ready for the Opera House yet. But there's got to be something in between.

It's been three years to the day since I first heard Nails. My boys got me Abandon All Life for Fathers Day in 2013 and it's still one of the best gifts I've ever been given. They haven't played Toronto since the week that album was released so this was probably the first time a lot of the people in attendance were going to get to see them. I haven't heard the new album yet but all I've heard is "5/5", "10/10", "ALBUM OF THE YEAR" from press and a lot of people online. They have a second guitarist again and he looks even more out of place than Saba did. He looks like he should be in Jungle Rot. The crowd was pretty crazy but I’ve seen nuttier. The only real dick was some fatass who decided to steamroll through three rows of people beside me during the intro to Wide Open Wound. They played really well and were really intense. But I was expecting more. I don’t know, maybe my expectation were just so high that they could never have been met. Maybe it was because none of the openers really impressed me that much and I was spent? The new songs sound just as good as the old songs. So I’m still looking forward to hearing the new album. But I think I like Nails better on tape.

Nails
1. God’s Cold Hands
2. You Will Never Be One of Us
3. ?
4. (possibly Conform)
5. (possibly Scum Will Rise)
6. Violence is Forever
7. ?
8. Suffering Soul
9. ?
10. ?
11. Wide Open Wound
12. Life is a Death Sentence
13. I Will Not Follow
14. ?
15. They Come Crawling Back (partial)
16. Unsilent Death


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Follow up:

I saw Nails again eight months later.  They have moved up to a larger venue but I think they could be in an even larger one still.  Or, I think they're going to jump on a tour as support for a bigger band like Lamb of God.  I can really see that crowd latching on to them.

I saw Eternal Sleep a few months later too opening for Every Time I Die on a tour with (gasp!) Harms Way.  They were much better that time around but Harms Way going on right after them blew them out of the water.

The other two bands I haven't listened to since.