Foetus
Nail

THE REVIEW

Nail, or one of the most intense and powerful albums in the history of music as a whole. James Thirlwell, also known as Foetus, arrives at this prodigious masterpiece in 1985, at least a decade ahead of much future rock. Nail, even today, presents dark and unclear aspects, but this is also the primary strength of an immortal work that manages, in any case, to shock the listener's soul, for better or worse, beyond any meaning or barrier.
To fully understand its artistic significance, it is therefore not enough to dwell on a specific analysis of the music, as useful as that may be, but we must first premise the "philosophical" scope that characterizes all the tracks.
Like a sort of Freud, Foetus completes his representation of industrial music by penetrating our subconscious, showing us a deep psychic dimension where the most destructive and dangerous feelings of the human soul are concentrated, ranging from evil instincts to homicidal fantasies, passing through sexual impulses.
The subconscious thus becomes the dimension of man devoid of logical criteria, where irrationality reigns supreme, but what differentiates Foetus's subconscious from Freud’s is its strongly negative, almost cursed connotation.
Having said this, we can clarify the purpose of this concept album, which is identified in the achievement of liberation or redemption, obtainable, however, through real paradoxes, living directly the most repugnant and disgusting aspects that characterize our existence, those conditions shown to us by the subconscious. Ultimately, the music of Foetus is characterized by a destructive tension that is nothing short of terrifying, coinciding with a vision of the world and life that is infernal.
The attainment of this awareness (world = hell) leads to the natural consequence of liberation from the hidden fears that characterize everyday life, as highlighted by the concluding "Anything (Viva!)" - "Any Goddamn Thing I Want" - in an icy atmosphere that seems to seal the annulment of all moral values through the explosion of all the instruments.

However, the path to reach this truth is not at all easy to undertake; instead, it is presented from the beginning as tortuous and full of obstacles. It starts with "Theme From Pigdom Come," almost two minutes of Wagnerian epicity, in which Thirlwell demonstrates his passion for classical and avant-garde music. The atmosphere is immediately icy, impenetrable, and effectively prepares the entry of the subsequent "The Throne Of Agony," with a frenetic and pounding rhythm; punk violence merges with industrial and synth-pop in a deadly fusion that culminates in the sinister and threatening noises of "!".
Following the agony experience, there is a first revelation of unconscious contents with Pigswill, one of the key tracks not only of this album but of Foetus's entire discography. The main theme is that of murder, described with catastrophic emphasis in an apocalyptic dimension, through metallic guitar riffs with disturbing percussions that overlap the voice and chase each other in an extraordinary symphonic crescendo ("Destroy, Destroy!!!").
"Descent Into The Inferno" is another sound nightmare staged with class and ease, sung with an almost singer-songwriter tone but at the same time possessed and drunken. When Mike Patton experiments with certain melodies with Mr. Bungle, he will be hailed as a genius by his fans.
In "Enter The Exterminator," we find Foetus narrating events, criminal episodes in a metropolitan setting, while with DI-1-9026 a deconstruction and reconstruction of different and distant genres like jazz, funk, and industrial itself is performed, which are sublimated into a strongly original musical style that always feels new.
"The Overture From Pigdome Come" is the continuation of the initial "Theme From Pigdom Come," an industrial symphony that still alludes to Richard Wagner, bringing back to light the tragic and dramatic sense of the individual's existence.

Hardly agreeable, but also for this absolutely brilliant, this utopian conception of deeply degraded human life in its obscenities allows industrial, for the first time, to transform into something "absolute," something capable of perfectly merging with other contemporary musical cultures.
After all these nice words, only one in particular can best summarize what has been said about Nail. You just have to guess it, perhaps by getting the record in question.