To fans of extreme metal, Nile will need no introduction. Thirty years into their career and about to unleash their tenth album – The Underworld Awaits Us All – they have challenged listeners with their technical and brutal brand of death metal. While different fans will point to different albums and eras as high points, Nile have stuck to what they believe in, both lyrically and musically. With The Underworld Awaits Us All, the band were determined to set high standards for themselves. “When George, Brian and I first discussed the upcoming 10th Nile album – the music, the recording process, and the expectations we ourselves had – it was unanimously decided that we must up our game in every way,” offers Karl Sanders. “The playing, the musicianship, the writing, the brutality, the recording and production quality, and most of all, the effectiveness of all those elements becoming a cohesive fist, were all of utmost prime importance to us. We didn’t want to go backward or just do things the way we had done before; nor did we want to necessarily change who we are and what we love doing. We needed to stay true to the Nile sound and to Nile fans, while pushing forward and raising the bar on ourselves in every way.”
In what must be a deliberate decision, much of the faster material occurs during the first two thirds of the album and opener Stelae Of Vultures is no exception. A vivid and dramatic account of ancient Sumerian rule, Eannatum’s military conquests and his slaughter of the Ummites, it begins with slow, gargantuan chords and drumming maestro - George Koallis visiting every part of his kit. Within thirty seconds, the riffs ignite with break neck speed and crushing, brutal vocals underscore the violence and ruthlessness that inhabit the lyrics. I Eannatum / Like a fierce storm wind / I unleashed the tempest / I stretched force my clenched fist / With spears and blades of copper / Advanced with chariot and phalanx / Like a fierce storm wind I unleashed the tempest. With distinct tempo changes, dissonant guitar and vocals ranging from deep gutturals to demonic screams, it is a hostile and combative opening to the album.
Acclerating the already high tempo, the first single from the album - Chapter for Not Being Hung Upside Down on a Stake in the Underworld and Made to Eat Feces by the Four Apes - maintains a technical approach while aiming to ramp up the brutality. While lyrically not the strongest song Nile have ever produced – it is based on the 181st chapter of the Egyptian Book of the Dead - the words are delivered with malignant venom as Dan Vadim Von’s bass and George Kollias’s turbocharged percussion invade and twist with wicked delight. “Nearly every Nile album has a song or songs drawn directly from Chapters of the Book of the Dead,” says Sanders. “I go to the bookshelf, pull out one of several versions of the Book of the Dead I have here, open it to whatever random place the book naturally falls to, and whatever is on that page – well, that’s gonna be the song. It’s a very superstitious way of doing things; this random-let-the-universe-be-the-guide writing has produced some of our most everlasting fan favourite songs.”
With definite hints of blackened death metal, To Strike With Secret Fang wastes no time in revealing its darkened heart. “It is a straight-to-the-point, up-tempo blasting venomous assassin's blade of a metal song.” Karl Sanders comments, “It's the shortest track off the new record, The Underworld Awaits us All, which of course in Nile fashion has several long form complex metal compositions. But 'Fang' instantly goes right for the throat and will no doubt be a burner for live Nile shows.” Much as there is no doubt that To Strike With Secret Fang goes for the jugular from the outset, because the band have decided to put the more consistently ferocious material up front, it does not have the full impact it stand might due to the similarity of the tracks around it. Clearly, Nile feel that to entice listeners early in the track list, the slower, possibly more thoughtful material should come towards the end of the album. This may appeal to some fans; however, having much of the variation on the album segregated in this way, does make it feel like an album of two halves.
Naqada II Enter the Golden Age offers something a little different and in parts, has by far the most Egyptian sounding segments of the album so far; however, it would have been most welcome if the song contained a little more of this as the more brutal motifs are in a similar vein to what has come before. A short, acoustic instrumental - The Pentagrammathion of Nephren-Ka – gives some respite from the relentless salvo of the first four tracks and there are moments in the background that, within a longer piece, might add more atmospheric depth. Since joining the band, Brian Kingsland has definitely influenced the approach to the rhythmic structures of the guitars and on Overlords of the Black Earth – the lyrics of which were in part inspired by meeting with Egyptologist and Curator Helene Vireneque of the La Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF) – there is a further blending of the technical and the punishing. Allowing for a more variation, Overlords of The Black Earth has dynamic and tempo changes and also contains some beautifully macabre choral embellishments (Spirits of fire crossover). Along with some of the deepest, most depraved gutturals on the entire album and some colossal, monolithic riffs, these slightly more elaborate changes make it one of the most rewarding tracks on the album. Under The Curse Of The One God also plays with tempo and almost serves as a transitionary track between the styles that are at play on the album.
Where there is still pulverising and unyielding intensity during much of the last four songs on The Underworld Awaits Us All, it is here that the true diversity within the album dwells. Doctrine of Last Things weaves between measured, strident behemoth and an engrossing barrage of blast beats. With further nefarious female backing vocals (The dead do not return) and lyrics that explore themes of death, reincarnation and the uncertainty of an afterlife, Doctrine of Last Rights maintains its interest throughout. The same could be said of the seven-minute True Gods of the Desert which employs – in Nile’s own malevolent style – riffs and motifs that reflect the hypnotic, undulating rhythms that mimic the steady, swaying gait of camels and also melodies that convey the wandering, timeless nature of desert life. Lyrically describing the desert gods as malicious, shadowy figures who reject Ra’s light, True Gods of the Desert aligns with the Egyptian concept of hidden and forbidden knowledge. We remain unaware / For they are ever murmuring / Lulling our minds / With insistent whispers / Which we do not hear / We do not see as they slither amongst us.
Title track and eight-and-a-half-minute epic, The Underworld Awaits Us All, goes through a number of different sections ranging from the savage opener, moments of demolishing gutturals, a quieter nomadic influenced segment and blisteringly rapid solos. While technically excellent, as fans might expect, it does have the feel of a song built around a range of ideas clumped together and as such is not as successful in its make-up as the two songs that precede it. Closing the album, instrumental Lament For The Destruction Of Time, moves with stoic, unhurried steps, developing a sense of expectancy. As sounds of crumbling and crashing rocks abound, Nile refuse to budge and it continues with riffs that echo the feel of a plodding brontosaurus, with only the occasionally side-stepping into more rapid riffs and percussion. It is an instrumental that leaves the listener pondering the meaning of existence and the inevitable passing of time.
Throughout The Underworld Awaits Us All, the ever-breathtaking George Kollias remains the star of the show and his performance has drawn much praise from Karl Sanders. “Every song has George giving a veritable metal masterclass of drum work,” Sanders asserts. “The amount of work George poured into these songs is staggering. It’s not just incredible drumming – George spent an insane amount of time turning the songs inside and out to craft each one into a work of sheer poetry of cohesion with the song itself.”
Reflecting on the album as a whole, the decision regarding the running order will find different levels of favour across the fanbase but to this listener, the opening half suffers from the similarity between the tracks. The Underworld Awaits Us All is by no means a failure for Nile. Nevertheless, it does not reach the heights of albums such as Annihilation of the Wicked nor does it distribute its variety as well as Those Whom The Gods Detest, for example; on the odd occasion, the brutality seems to be there for brutalities sake. The Underworld Awaits Us All is a solid but not essential addition to any death metal collection.
The Underworld Awaits Us All is released on 23rd August 2024
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