Nile – The Underworld Awaits Us All
Nile – The Underworld Awaits Us All
Napalm Records
23/08/2024
Running Time: 53:41
Review by Oli Gonzalez
8/10
It’s not often you get to review the albums of bands you’ve been a genuine fan of for several years. So you can imagine the delight I experienced at the prospect of doing so, and reliving my teenage years and re-visiting the time I first laid ears on Nile’s music. Seminal hits such as ‘Sacrifice Unto Sebek’ and ‘Execration Text’ represented everything I looked for in an Extreme Metal band! They were more than comfortable to stray off the beaten path and create their own brand of Death Metal, with tracks such as ‘Unas Slayer Of The Gods’ demonstrating the intelligent and signature use of traditional Egyptian instruments and soundbites alongside challenging and complex song structures. Now, the band are on the eve of their latest release, “The Underworld Awaits Us All”, and a forthcoming European tour (I have my ticket for the Manchester date!).
Throughout these years, former frontman Dallas had been a mainstay in the band’s sound and imagery, handling both lead vocals and guitars. Today, the band are a five piece, with ever presents Karl and George maintaining the spine of the band while the line up is completed with Zach, Brian and Dan. Will an extra member be the additional cook that spoils the broth, or will having a dedicated lead vocalist add extra creative freedoms for the other instrumentalists? Let’s see…
Now, this is everything you would expect from a Nile record! The signature intensity and ferocity is impossible to ignore, representing everything we love about Death Metal. That is face melting lead guitars, jaw dropping blast beats, and bone crunching basslines.
Vocally, this is interesting. Some vocalists leave bands and that hole is never quite fully replaced. I feared this would happen when Dallas left. However, Zach and Brian are more than capable vocalists, sharing the mid-range fierce growls that still retain clarity and allowing us to be indulged in the sheer lyrical masterclasses. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. Karl’s trademark gutturals stemming from the depths of the underworld themselves are still ever-present and a welcome nod to Nile’s legacy and identity.
Still, it would be easy for Nile or other bands to take an 8 string guitar, tune down to drop F# and chug away pretending to be heavy. No, they retain a classic feel to their sound and offer a mind-blowing technical and complex approach to composition and to their instrumentation. Yes, this isn’t the kind of stuff you casually decide to play when you’re bored on a Sunday afternoon. This takes years of patience and dedication to maintain such an outlandishly heavy yet technically refined end product. An end product that is mastered and mixed with remarkable precision. Worlds apart from the band’s raw and rough production values from the mid 90s.
In many ways though, Nile are victims of their own success. The bar had been set brutally high with efforts such as “Annihilation Of The Wicked” and “In Their Darkened Shrines”. Maybe it’s the sentiment in me talking, but “The Underworld Awaits Us All” just isn’t grabbing me in the same way these aforementioned records did. I was just purring over the technically polished values in the previous paragraph. Though I fear it’s too technical, and maybe there needs to be more of a stripped down approach to let the music breathe a little. We see glimpses of this in the mid and latter stages of the album, with the introduction of traditional Egyptian instruments, and some blazing lead guitar solos. Maybe we needed more for this to challenge for the title of magnus opus for the band.
With this being said, “The Underworld Awaits Us All” represents everything that’s great about Nile and serves as a fantastic introduction to the band.
TRACKLISTING
01. Stelae of Vultures
02. Chapter for Not Being Hung Upside Down on a Stake in the Underworld and Made to Eat Feces by the Four Apes
03. To Strike with Secret Fang
04. Naqada II Enter the Golden Age
05. The Pentagrammathion of Nephren-Ka
06. Overlords of the Black Earth
07. Under the Curse of the One God
08. Doctrine of Last Things
09. True Gods of the Desert
10. The Underworld Awaits us All
11. Lament for the Destruction of Time
LINE-UP
Karl Sanders – Guitar, Vocals, Keyboards,
George Kollias – Drums
Brian Kingsland – Guitar, Vocals
Zach Jeter – Guitar, Vocals
Dan Vadim Von – Bass
LINKS
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