Throughout the realms of brutal and tech loss of life metallic, North Carolina’s Nile have loved a revered profession due largely to their aesthetic (and sometimes musical) fascination with Egyptology. The longevity of this method transcends a mere gimmick not solely due to Nile‘s tasteful method but additionally as a result of they occur to be a few of the greatest musicians within the style.
The prowess of this band is most clearly displayed by drummer George Kollias, who heads an extreme metal department on the Athens Fashionable Music Faculty, however each facet of this band exhibits how tight this music might turn into earlier than the arrival of drum triggers and click on tracks. This unfathomed precession, coupled with a novel cultural ambiance, has stored Nile in a spot of respect. Whereas there’s not a lot variation inside their area of interest fashion, nobody does it like them. This might clarify why The Underworld Awaits Us All stays compelling because it wades in the identical waters Nile has referred to as residence for the previous three many years years.
Founding guitarist/vocalist Karl Sanders instantly comes by way of with the harmonic minor scales woven into his flurries of tremolo, chugs, and harmonized strains on the opening lower “Stellae of Vultures.” Kollias‘ superbly bodacious drumming has misplaced none of its medical finesse, whereas the sparing use of gongs and thundering subject recordings provides the band the proper contact of big-budget flare with out turning into too over-the-top.
Even with a compound sentence as a title, “Chapter for Not Being Hung…” shows simply how elite Nile stays of their style. The sheer precision is spectacular sufficient, however riffs preserve memorable melodic motifs the place lesser-tech loss of life bands would rely totally on flashy shredding. In the identical method, it is splendidly obvious that Kollias performs his blast beats like a songwriter. Without having for studio trickery, his acrobatic performances come full of every kind of rhythmic trickery to supply extra for the riffs and jackhammer pace.
The black metallic undercurrents of “To Strike with Secret Fang” mesh nicely with the savagery, as Kollias brings the harrowing tremolo traces ranges of pace akin to Anaal Nathrakh (who, curiously, makes use of programmed drums). It is a good change of tempo from the standard hyper-chugging barrages, whereas “The Pentagrammathion of Nephren-Ka” simply seems like an acoustic extension of Sanders’ musical thoughts. His drive to include Egyptian themes into Nile‘s music has lengthy prolonged past the floor, making these ominous guitar serenades as genuine as they’re well-performed.
However extra importantly, this nuanced contact would not get misplaced within the sonic fray of “Overlords of the Black Earth.” The band locks right into a whirlpool of jagged syncopated stabbings and overwhelming violence, however they steer clear the musical blurring impact typically produced by technical indulgence by the use of finesse and magnificence labored into the fray. The sheer pace of a lower like “Underneath the Curse of the One God” is borderline comical at occasions, however Nile is not afraid to lock right into a slower four-on-the-floor groove to drive residence the genuinely catchy riffs. However, each of those tracks use clear singing to a decidedly unusual impact. In step with the “Goblin singing” on newer Cattle Decapitation, the singing is not meant to be harmonious or hooky. The purposely ugly, unhuman timbre does take some getting used to, however relaxation assured that the doorway of singing does not imply Nile are enjoying area rock now.
The truth is, songs like “Naqada II Enter the Golden Age” include a few of the most prog-ish passages Nile has launched to this point. With out delving into nerd metallic territory, the seamless locking up of unpredictable rhythm goes to point out that tech/brutal loss of life will be elevated with out diverted from its unrelenting nature. It is nearly funky at occasions, to some extent the place it leaves a need wanting extra of that within the meat of the observe. Nonetheless, deeper cuts like “Doctrine of Final Issues” persist with the trail marked by “Overlords” and “Underneath.” This does result in extra well-crafted loss of life metallic with oddball melodic prospers, so it is onerous to complain.
As with most technical metallic, the irony of this album lies within the truth a few of its greatest moments come from slowing issues down. Take the lumbering grooves and ominous chord progressions of “True Gods of the Desert.” It is antithetical to the tech-death ethos of limitless shredding, however the infectiousness of the groove goes to point out Nile is not restricted by their area of interest. After all, one of the best Nile songs are those that may do each, which the 8-minute penultimate observe “The Underworld Awaits Us All” brings in spades. The observe runs the gamut of blast-beating stampedes and doom-laden strains, resulting in an expertise as numerous as it’s bone-crushing. Every part provides its distinctive tackle the album’s core tenets, greater than incomes its place because the title observe and an amazing instance of why Nile instructions a lot respect.
From elegiac guitar leads and fusion-esque rhythm adjustments, operatic cues and primitive slam riffs, the instrumental nearer “Lament for the Destruction of Time” lands the album in Nile‘s singular place in Lovecraftian horror blended with Egyptian mysticism and, importantly, nice sounding loss of life metallic. It would sound like a cliche to explain loss of life metallic because the sound of the apocalypse, but when the inevitable descent into the underworld means a Nile file of this caliber, it may not be the worst destiny!
