Various Artists – The Nail (Volume 2)

The Nail: Volume 2 is the second compilation from the Seattle based record label Tooth And Nail. Anyone who follows the label a bit knows that they are mostly Christian bands and that they release a ton of CDs. They don’t always get a ton of press coverage and radio play, so sometimes you don’t know about a band until the CD has already dropped. Here, they have combined 21 songs from releases over the past few years (and one unreleased Further Seems Forever song off their upcoming album, Hide Nothing, which hits stores soon) so that you can catch up on what they’ve been up to.

Like the first release in The Nail series, this one features a wide variety of songs. It starts off with the harder rock sounds of Spy Hunter by Project 86 before heading into the more pop-punk song by the label’s newest signee, Hawk Nelson. Tooth And Nail obviously has a wide range of styles in their roster, and they prove it here. They have rock bands like Spoken and Thousand Foot Krutch, screaming/singing bands like Emery, Underoath, and Dead Poetic, pop-punk like Watashi Wa, MeWithoutYou, FM Static, and Slow Coming Day.

The Nail Volume 2 has, like all compilation, some weaker songs which the listener will skip over. For me, its songs like Song For All Time by Joy Electric which just seems to be too slow and nothing exciting. But the good thing for this compilation, is that they have more songs that you press repeat on then you press skip on. Songs like Glass To The Arson by Anberlin, California by Hawk Nelson,Captivated by Slow Coming Day, Definitely Maybe by FM Static, and Spy Hunter by Project 86 will get played over and over again.

Although it doesn’t offer anything new to avid Tooth And Nail fans, it does help show their roster to people who don’t know that much about the label. And since it is Christian, even the most sheltered kid can listen to it without getting in trouble.