NILE The Underworld Awaits Us All

Within the realms of brutal and tech death metal, North Carolina’s Nile have enjoyed a revered career due in large part to their aesthetic (and often musical) fascination with Egyptology. The longevity of this approach transcends a mere gimmick not only because of Nile‘s tasteful approach but also because they happen to be some of the best musicians in the genre.

The prowess of this band is most obviously displayed by drummer George Kollias, who heads an extreme metal department at the Athens Modern Music School, but every aspect of this band shows how tight this music could become before the advent of drum triggers and click tracks. This unfathomed precession, coupled with a unique cultural atmosphere, has kept Nile in a place of respect. While there’s not much variation within their niche style, no one does it like them. This would explain why The Underworld Awaits Us All remains compelling as it wades in the same waters Nile has called home for the past three decades years.

Founding guitarist/vocalist Karl Sanders immediately comes through with the harmonic minor scales woven into his flurries of tremolo, chugs, and harmonized strains on the opening cut “Stellae of Vultures.” Kollias‘ beautifully bodacious drumming has lost none of its clinical finesse, while the sparing use of gongs and thundering field recordings gives the band the right touch of big-budget flare without becoming too over-the-top.

Even with a compound sentence as a title, “Chapter for Not Being Hung…” displays just how elite Nile remains in their genre. The sheer precision is impressive enough, but riffs maintain memorable melodic motifs where lesser-tech death bands would rely entirely on flashy shredding. In the same way, it’s wonderfully apparent that Kollias performs his blast beats like a songwriter. With no need for studio trickery, his acrobatic performances come filled with all kinds of rhythmic trickery to provide more for the riffs and jackhammer speed.

The black metal undercurrents of “To Strike with Secret Fang” mesh well with the savagery, as Kollias brings the harrowing tremolo lines levels of speed akin to Anaal Nathrakh (who, interestingly, uses programmed drums). It’s a nice change of pace from the usual hyper-chugging barrages, while “The Pentagrammathion of Nephren-Ka” just feels like an acoustic extension of Sanders’ musical mind. His drive to incorporate Egyptian themes into Nile‘s music has long extended beyond the surface, making these ominous guitar serenades as authentic as they are well-performed.

But more importantly, this nuanced touch doesn’t get lost in the sonic fray of “Overlords of the Black Earth.” The band locks into a whirlpool of jagged syncopated stabbings and overwhelming violence, but they steer clear the musical blurring effect often produced by technical indulgence by way of finesse and elegance worked into the fray. The sheer speed of a cut like “Under the Curse of the One God” is borderline comical at times, but Nile isn’t afraid to lock into a slower four-on-the-floor groove to drive home the genuinely catchy riffs. On the other hand, both of these tracks use clean singing to a decidedly strange effect. In line with the “Goblin singing” on newer Cattle Decapitation, the singing isn’t meant to be harmonious or hooky. The purposely ugly, unhuman timbre does take some getting used to, but rest assured that the entrance of singing doesn’t mean Nile are playing arena rock now. 

In fact, songs like “Naqada II Enter the Golden Age” contain some of the most prog-ish passages Nile has released to date. Without delving into nerd metal territory, the seamless locking up of unpredictable rhythm goes to show that tech/brutal death can be elevated without diverted from its unrelenting nature. It’s almost funky at times, to a point where it leaves a want wanting more of that in the meat of the track. However, deeper cuts like “Doctrine of Last Things” stick to the path marked by “Overlords” and “Under.” This does lead to more well-crafted death metal with oddball melodic flourishes, so it’s hard to complain.

As with most technical metal, the irony of this album lies in the fact some of its best moments come from slowing things down. Take the lumbering grooves and ominous chord progressions of “True Gods of the Desert.” It’s antithetical to the tech-death ethos of endless shredding, but the infectiousness of the groove goes to show Nile isn’t limited by their niche. Of course, the best Nile songs are the ones that can do both, which the 8-minute penultimate track “The Underworld Awaits Us All” brings in spades. The track runs the gamut of blast-beating stampedes and doom-laden strains, leading to an experience as diverse as it is bone-crushing. Each section gives its unique take on the album’s core tenets, more than earning its place as the title track and a great example of why Nile commands so much respect.

From elegiac guitar leads and fusion-esque rhythm changes, operatic cues and primitive slam riffs, the instrumental closer “Lament for the Destruction of Time” lands the album in Nile‘s singular place in Lovecraftian horror mixed with Egyptian mysticism and, importantly, great sounding death metal. It might sound like a cliche to describe death metal as the sound of the apocalypse, but if the inevitable descent into the underworld means a Nile record of this caliber, it might not be the worst fate!