BRACED FOR NAILS

Though no longer active, Texas-bred brutal death metal supergroup (featuring members of INGURGITATE, VIRAL LOAD, INSIDIOUS DECPREPANCY among others),BRACED FOR NAILS spread their flesh-tearing brand of sonic blasphemy across the wastelands for the better part of the mid-2000s. During the three or so years the band was together, they managed to blast out a collection of tunes which has finally seen a proper release courtesy of Ossuary Industries.

With gutturally low vocals and detuned guitars to match, BRACED FOR NAILS churn out a respectable brand of old-schoolish USDM with a few modern flavorings (well, modern in the sense that these tunes were written six or seven years ago). While the sampled intro of what we have to presume is Jesus being nailed to the cross and a whispered soliloquy gets a little long and overly-dramatic, "Icons Above All Others" gets downright vicious with "Horizons of Crucified Saviors". MORBID ANGEL and SUFFOCATION come to mind as the band shifts between a frenzied blast and deathly groove. "As A Messiah (Braced For Nails)" offers some very cool, doomy riffage, but loses itself in the fray of the song's somewhat discombobulated faster sections. Hearing the band build on the weirdness of the opening moment would have made for a much more interesting tune. "Damnation's Prayer II" (a follow up to the intro, obviously titled "Damnation's Prayer") and "A Greater Evil In Atonement" both grab your attention with catchy guitars and vocal patterns and solid structure. BRACED FOR NAILS brings some welcome shards of grind to the table with the hyper "Above All Others" and "I, The Obscenity". Were the latter not so disjointed, I'd call it a classic example of forward-thinking USDM. This release includes two selections from the band's 2003 demo, "Damnation's Prayer", which will really only appeal to purists and collectors as both tunes appear on the album already.

It's a damn shame that BRACED FOR NAILS isn't still around as a few more years together very well could have yielded some interesting results. Based off what I've heard here, this was a promising band. I won't say they could have risen to the upper echelon of the USDM scene, but they sure in the hell could have blazed a fiery path through the underground. Though it's no reinvention of the wheel, I'd recommend "Icons Above All Others" for anyone who likes their steaks bloody and your death metal brutal and relentless.