Nails Hide Metal Breach review - The Rock and Roll Report
Coming out of the Pacific Northwest, Nails Hide Metal is a two-person band that consists of Russ Quinn on guitars, bass, keyboards, vocals and MeLinda Dalton on drums, percussion, keyboards, harmonica and vocals. Together, the duo creates more than just your usual guitar-and-drums music that you would usually associate with a two-person band. Their music is so much more than that. While the duo is only two people, their use of multi-track recording allows for their music to sound as rich and full as any full band’s music would sound.
Breach from Nails Hide Metal begins with the track “All Through”. The track features a definite Indie Rock feel to the music. The track finds Russ Quinn delivering the lyrics in a pseudo-sing/song delivery as he speaks some of the lyrics and sings others. That delivery helps to add even more Indie feel to the track while the inclusion of MeLinda Dalton’s background vocals helps to add more of a melodic feel to the lyrical content. The music of the track itself features a quick tempo and energetic feel that comes courtesy of the guitars from Quinn. Altogether, the opening track of “All Through” starts the Breach release off with plenty of energy.
The Breach release continues with the track “On the Hill Stairs”. The track’s music begins with a light Grunge feel. Before too long, the duo of Russ Quinn and MeLinda Dalton change the direction of the music drastically as the music takes on a direction that feels closer to something from the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In fact, the lyrics of the song even have a Hendrix-like feel to them. The duo alternates the music of the track between the Hendrix direction and the Grunge feel. The two-tone feel of the song keeps the music moving and keeps the listener focused on the song.
With the inclusion of a fuzz guitar, the track “Cause” comes across as part Rock and Roll, part Punk Rock. Along with the fuzz guitar and the bass from Russ Quinn that give the song a very deep, rich sound, the keyboard from MeLinda Dalton fill the background of the track with effects that add a lot texture and make the song feel slightly other-worldly. “Cause” contains a strong, driving feel to the pace of the song and keeps the song moving.
After several tracks of quick-paced songs, Nails Hide Metal change the direction of their music. The track “Iconic Nobody,” like “On the Hill Stairs” before it, contains a slight Jimi Hendrix feel to the music. Along with that Hendrix influence, the track features a slowed down pace when comparing it to the tracks that came before. As Russ Quinn sings of the current state of affairs of today’s youth, his vocals contain a quality that seems like a cross between Hendrix and Paul McCartney. Quinn’s lyrical delivery on the track is matched up well with MeLinda Dalton’s vocals that help to add a lot of harmony to the track.
The Breach release from Nails Hide Metal continues with the track “Straight and Narrow”. The track finds the duo of Russ Quinn and MeLinda Dalton venturing into a more experimental direction as the music of the track contains an avante garde feel. The song is one of the most unusual moments on the album. However, the musical direction taken by the duo on the track “Straight and Narrow” simply shows the diversity in their influences.
Nails Hide Metal brings their newest release to an end with the track “Bend the Day”. After songs that feature many different influences and musical directions, the duo creates a track in “Bend the Day” that has, perhaps, the most straight-out Rock and Roll feel to the music. The track’s music would fit alongside Rock and Roll songs from the seventies. That is, until the final few seconds of the track where the band chooses to bring the song to an end by making the song sound as it was collapsing. The breakdown of the music at the end of the track (and the end of the album, as well) gives the album the unmistakable feel that it is coming to an end. A rather unusual way to bring the eight-song release to a close. However, it works.
For having been created by only two musicians, the Breach album from Nails Hide Metal contains a surprisingly large amount of variety in the styles of Rock and Roll that make up the eight tracks on the album. This is due to the versatility of both Russ Quinn and MeLinda Dalton who are responsible for bringing the music on the release to life. Of course, this is not their first album. And hopefully, this won’t be their last. - by Matheson Kamin, The Rock and Roll Report