All about Nile

Yeah, the record sounds like a cut-and-paste from your favorite Digital Audio Workstation. And here are the loops of the evil
robot from Egypt vocals we've been compiling for the last six years. And here are the loops of the double kick bass that sound like someone pressed a button that said "really fast double kick bass that no one but a robot can play." And here's the title of a song taken from my library of H. P. Lovecraft. All very seamless and competent and perfectly stitched together machine-like, but a dumb machine, not a smart one. Cover art is tremendous, as usual. They had a record of demos on Relapse years ago and I liked that more as they had not yet turned into Egyptian cyborgs.

Actual headline of Nile feature in UCSD student newspaper, taken from press kit: "Nile resurrects death metal: Band is seeped in Egyptain mysticsm." And, nope, those aren't my errors. [Picture of journalism prof ripping what's left of his hair out, omitted.]

The King Diamond/Nile metal show went through my old hometown and my pal who is really into "the King" had tickets. When they showed at the venue, "the King" had bailed on the night due to illness. Given the option of hearing Nile, passed. Maybe he should have stayed. I dunno.

I noticed that and thought, "Hmmm..." (I figured the Lovecraft goes without saying.) Cover art, yes.

YAY DRUM TRIGGERS

some deathers really hate Nile. I get that they're not really in the highest echelon of DM but the "they always make the same album" criticism seems particularly weird in a genre whose fans routinely put albums by aging DM acts who merely stay in their lane in their annual top ten lists.

I do enjoy these dudes, I have seen them a bit too much live and their sound is a bit compressed even live, but I've been a fan since I was first getting into DM and managed to see them on their Black Seeds of Vengeance tour before I was even old enough to drink.

never quite understood the "they should put more of the Egyptian flavor into their music", like even the superior Melechesh still is ostensibly death metal on top of the Mesopotamian stuff.

also "Kafir" is a banger

in "Stones of Sorrow" it sounds like he's shouting "GEPETTO! GEPETTO! GEPETTO!"

dig the new one more than I did the last one. feel like this band is impervious to the effects of lineup changes, largely due to Sanders.

I recently wrote a death metal primer for The Wire and figured I had to include an album by these guys since they are so beloved in da scene. I chose In Their Darkened Shrines, and said:

Nile...are the product of one man’s obsessions. Guitarist Karl Sanders likes two things: death metal and ancient Egypt, and his band’s music combines blazingly fast riffs and machine-gun drumming with occasional passages of Middle Eastern instrumentation, and some orchestral flourishes here and there. What sets Nile apart, though, is Sanders’ willingness to go big. “Unas, Slayer Of The Gods” is nearly 12 minutes long, and In Their Darkened Shrines’ title piece is a four-part suite running over 19 minutes, and in each case the scale actually yields results.

Listening to At the Gate of Sethu rn and fuck i love this stuff

I had a cd of theirs that never seemed to fully sound present, maybe overly compressed or something. Was it In Their Darkened Shrines. Always seemed to be a bit distant no matter hwo loud i had it. So wonder if it was a dodgy copy or the production on the lp. Did like them overall though i think.
THink I pickled up another 2 or 3 cds by them but not listened in quite a while.