8. Nails - Abandon All Life
Next up is Abandon All Life, the 17 minute pummeling from American grindcore outfit Nails. Without a shadow of the doubt, this is the filthiest album of the year. There's no steady build up to the album, no acoustic opener to signal the calm before the storm - the album cuts straight to the chase and opens with In Exodus, a solid headbutt of chuggy, downtuned riffs and blast beats fierce enough to give you a nosebleed. By the time second track Tyrant reaches the end of it's 42 seconds, and Absolute Controls bursts through your speakers to assault your brain (also 42 seconds long by the way), you genuinely start to fear that it all might prove to be too much for you. Luckily, the generally short length of Nails' songs means that they are able to deliver round after round of haymakers without ever giving you time to realise that your skull has been cracked. It is worth noting that Abandon All Life is extremely well produced for a grindcore record, with the pounding bass drums and walls of guitar sound driving things along - the vocals are also rather muffled in the mix, which in this case proves to be a good thing as it allows the listener to feel the unbridled aggression being volleyed at them by the band. All in all, Nails have produced one of the greatest examples of why aggressive music can appeal to so many people - this album might not get much mainstream coverage but it's sheer attitude and ability to sate the listeners desire for catharsis will surely make it a future classic in extreme heavy music.