Nile – "The Underworld Awaits Us All"

If you think you're in a river in Egypt, you're in deNile...

(Guest reviewer: Magnus Jørgensen)

It doesn't make a lot of sense that I'm so fond of Nile, because I don't get technical death metal. Most tech bands eschew real songwriting for musical masturbation. Nothing wrong with a bunch of guys pleasing themselves, but it's not a very exciting listen, and it tends to go on and on without any climaxes. For the listener, that is.

I don't even truly appreciate the incredible skill and finesse that it takes. When they do their outrageous 250 bpm blast beats, polyrhythmic shit, and surprising (dis)harmonics, I'm impressed, but by itself, it's nothing to me. I wouldn't know the difference between the circle of fifths and the circle of my sphincter if not for the hemorrhoids.

But I fucking love Nile. When they are at their best, they conjure up some of the most majestic metal ever, but with guitars tuned to A. It is every bit as huge as when Avantasia split the sky at Jailbreak a month ago. The vengeful, final chants of "Black Seeds of Vengeance" ('00) and "4th Arra of Dagon" off "Those Whom the Gods Detest" ('09) convey irresistible power. Just thinking of the majesty of "Unas Slayer of the Gods" off "In Their Darkened Shrines" ('02) makes my skin tingle.

"Those Whom the Gods Detest" and "The Blessed Dead" (also off "... Darkened Shrines") bring the shivering terror of being lost in the void, never allowed to pass through Anubis' gates and enter the Duat. I don't need to visualize, because the music makes me fucking see the blood running down the anointed penis of that statue on the cover of "Ithyphallic" ('07). Yes, this band makes me feel.

It's not only that the music truly elates me, but I also have an immense respect for main man Karl Sanders and his vision. Some people say that metal isn't controversial anymore. Well, praise the audacious "Kafir!" ('09), a song that they have, quoting Sanders, "been kindly asked" not to perform in "certain countries" due to its description of the killing of infidels in the name of Allah. Yes, this is a band that has the fucking balls to criticize Islam.

They did it again on "Call to Destruction" off "What Should Not Be Unearthed" ('15), spotlighting Daesh's eradication of every monument and work of art found offensive in their idiotic and pathetic attack on everything that they don't understand. Those vermin couldn't create anything – I'm pretty sure they couldn't even follow the instructions for a box of Lego – so they decided to leave everything in ruins. And predictably, Nuclear Blast cowardly prefaced the music video with a statement about not wanting to offend anyone, ie. the Islamist thugs.

There's a reason why I'm talking so much about the band's history. You see, after listening to "The Underworld Awaits Us All" a lot of times, I still can't recall a single killer riff, a single powerful chorus, or a single brilliant lyric. It doesn't bring anything except for outrageous speed and brutal intensity. That's not a new thing, because the latest Nile records have lacked the exceptional majesty of their earlier records.

"Vile Nilotic Rites" ('19) had its moments, but on this one, they merely sound like an exceptionally skilled extreme death metal band. Apart from the short interlude "The Pentagrammathion of Nephren-Ka" (a tongue-in-cheek doubling down on the error in the title of their debut album, I believe), we don't get that spectacular use of acoustic instruments that used to characterize Nile. Where are the gongs and horns that mark a tragedy or call us to war?

We do get glimpses of their strength. The opener, "Stelae of Vultures", features some frantic guitar work hidden behind the massive wall of destruction that characterizes this record. The skill required to play or just write this shit is absurd. The title track hints at Nile at their mightiest as repeated howls of "It is written!" precede a spectacular guitar solo and then a touch of female vocal variety.

Not that there's anything wrong with the vocal performances. The new trio Brian Kingsland (also on "Vile Nilotic Rites"), Zach Jeter, and Dan Vadim Von are as ferocious as they come, but it takes more to match the perfect articulation and the ability to create outrageously catchy vocal lines on top of the mayhem that makes former singer Dallas Toler-Wade a true master. And a few times one of them veers into deathcore territory. Don't go there. Just don't.

I'm a firm opponent of the idea that veteran bands should necessarily evolve in order to make something exciting. I don't want the artists who have their sound and style perfected to change. I just want them to write songs that kill. But this time around, the khopesh is merely a lash.

P.S. Sanders does give us another wonderful song title in "Chapter for Not Being Hung Upside Down on a Stake in the Underworld and Made to Eat Feces by the Four Apes". While it's not as genius as "Chapter of Obeisance Before Giving Breath to the Inert One in the Presence of the Crescent Shaped Horns", it definitely rivals "Papyrus Containing the Spell to Preserve Its Possessor Against Attacks from He Who Is in The Water". It is appreciated.

Rating: 3.5 out of 6

Genre: Technical death metal
Release date: 23/8/2024
Label: Napalm Records
Producer: Karl Sanders