Combining elements of grindcore, crust-punk, and death metal, American power-violence quartet NAILS emerged in the early 2010s and quickly rose to the fore of the extreme metal underground with their unrelenting sound and savage live shows. The band inked a deal with Southern Lord ahead of the arrival of the release of their acclaimed sophomore album, Abandon All Life, and made the lateral move to Nuclear Blast for 2016's You Will Never Be One of Us. In 2019 the band issued the brutal single "I Don't Want to Know You" before going on an indefinite hiatus the following year.

Founded in Southern California by frontman and ex-Terror guitarist Todd Jones, bassist John Gianelli, and drummer Taylor Young, NAILS released their debut EP, Obscene Humanity, in 2009, followed by the full-length Unsilent Death in 2010. Both releases gained wider distribution through a Southern Lord reissue. A second proper album, the hyper-intense and ultra-compact Abandon All Life arrived on the label in 2013, and three years later, the band unleashed their third long-player, You Will Never Be One of Us, this time via Nuclear Blast. A split 7" with Full of Hell arrived later that year, and in 2019 the group released the fiery one-off single "I Don't Want to Know You." Gianelli and Young left the fold the following year, leaving Jones as the group's sole member. ~ James Christopher Monger