Nile is one of those bands that left a mark on the history of death metal with its high-velocity music and ancient Egypt themes. The band could have easily buried the axe in 2005, having been so influential in the industry. However, in the months leading up to the release of their new album, the band once again captured the imagination by unveiling a song entitled “Chapter for Not Being Hung Upside Down on a Stake in the Underworld and Made to Eat Feces by the Four Apes,” whose title is taken from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. But extravagances aside, Nile proves that there are still plenty of quality albums to be fashioned from its musical language.
Karl Sanders, 61 and the band’s sole founding member, shows no signs of fatigue on The Underworld Awaits Us All. This 10th album is packed with his signature guitar style: ultra-fast runs of diminished scales, a highly musical use of dive-bombs, and heavy passages played with palm muting. As always, there’s a profusion of semitones and minor thirds, the intervals that produce Nile’s characteristic “oriental” riffs. However, the density of notes, the frantic tempi, and the death metal context prevent this compositional cliché from being perceived as such, acting instead in the band’s favor by setting it apart from its peers. Sanders also impresses with the vitality of his low cavernous roar, more powerful than ever, which complements Brian Kingsland’s rather medial lead vocals.
Since Annihilation of the Wicked (2005), the album that introduced Greek drummer George Kollias to the world, playing standards have changed. From album to album, Kollias has proved his impeccable mastery of fast tempi and the creativity with which extreme percussion can be pushed. On this new opus, there is indeed meticulous attention to detail behind the drums’ allure of total destruction. Even after many listen, the richness of the rhythm section’s writing is easier felt than heard, as the music moves so fast. On the other hand, when the tracks slow down and allow long, heavy atmospheric passages to breathe, this percussive creativity comes to the fore.
Speaking of the atmosphere, the vocal arrangements involving singers Jasmine Sheppard, Tiffany Frederick, Ashley Johnson, Jessica Williams, and Michelle Mercado are a nice touch. These passages emerge from nowhere and create a depth of field in the density of the musical landscape. The album closes with the equally epic “Lament for the Destruction of Time,” a dark, ponderous quasi-instrumental piece that does justice to its title. And as no Nile album is without an interlude or acoustic introduction, the classical guitar piece “The Pentagrammathion of Nephren-Ka” splits the aural assault in two.
Each Nile album adds its own colour to the discography, but The Underworld Awaits Us All seems to have had a seismic effect. Many are already quick to proclaim it as one of—if not the—best of the lot. And the superlative is justified, for there’s not a dull moment in this 53-minute saga. Not only is The Underworld Awaits Us All an excellent contribution to the death metal tradition, it also fully justifies the band’s controversial aesthetic. For although no one knows what the music might have sounded like in Egypt 5000 years ago, Nile easily immerses us in its unabashedly phantasmagorical exploration of the times of the Pharaohs.
