Nails

The aptly titled follow-up to 2010's Unsilent Death, Abandon All Life is a reminder that sometimes the only way to get heavier is to slow things down a notch. On their second full-length, Nails have far from abandoned the balls-out ferocity that defined their debut, with tracks like "Absolute Control" and "No Surrender" ferociously blurring the apex of power-violence, death metal and grindcore. But stretching the album's ten tracks past the 17-minute mark is a new edge that defines numbers like "Wide Open Wound," which never reaches beyond its visceral crawl, and atonal closer "Suum Cuique," which at more than five minutes is easily the longest track the band have offered. Heavy as heavy can be, Abandon All Life is a quick burst for anyone looking to punish their ear drums.