“I felt like I’d expressed everything I had inside me and nothing was left. After 20 years I thought, ‘Man, maybe I’m done’”: How Eddie Van Halen inspired Todd Jones to pick Nails up off the canvas for a face-ripping comeback album

A portrait of California hardcore band Nails with their new 2024 lineup, photographed in an urban setting, framed by yellow hand rails.

Like many artists, Oxnard, California-based hardcore metal outfit Nails were creatively blocked as the Covid pandemic ravaged the world. However, frontman Todd Jones can’t blame the virus for stifling his creativity. His songwriting tank was already empty after the band released its third album, You Will Never Be One of Us, in 2016.

“I felt like I’d expressed everything I had inside me and nothing was left,” he says. “After 20 years I thought, ‘Man, maybe I’m done.’”