You may or may not have heard of this band, they are pretty new to the scene, forming back in 2023. From Karlsruhe, Germany, Nail By Nail are a black death metal band, releasing their first album on 9th May 2025 via War Anthem Records. The album consists of six songs, each one lasting over five minutes long, with the first track being the longest at six minutes forty seconds.
The band have five members include Tobias Rühl on guitar, Philipp Heckel doing vocals, Noel Auch on drums, Lars H. on bass, and Emmanuel B. on guitar. They have crafted an insanely heavy, melodic, and dark album, which any death metal fan would love! Some tracks include ‘Crooked Nails’, ‘Embraced By Darkness’, and ‘Dagger Nights’.
The first track ‘Born In Total War’ starts the album off and is a perfect intro for what to expect for the rest of the album. The build-up in the beginning sets you up and prepares you for the incoming tight and powerful riffs and drums.
The third track ‘Cosmic Fire’ starts with heavy breathing, terrified screams, and evil laughter, setting you up for an explosive and guttural scream by vocalist Philipp Heckel. The whole song has so much fast drums and insane riffs, loud and brutal vocals, and is the definition of proper death metal.
The fourth track ‘The Frozen Tomb’ has a bit of a difference to the other songs. Some light piano intros the first fifteen seconds before the powerful guitar riffs come in and bring the song back to life! This is a bit of a slower song, but still holds as much energy and passion as the rest of them.
Heavy, fast, brutal, dark, and explosive are a few words that come to mind when listening to this album. Raspy and guttural roars and screams throughout, so much passion and emotion, aggression, insaneness, and haunting in some parts. Definitely an album to listen to if you love death metal!
