Nile - The Underworld Awaits Us All (Album Review)
Nile - The Underworld Awaits Us All
Released: August 23rd, 2024
Lineup:
Karl Sanders // Vocals & Guitar
Brian Kingsland // Vocals & Guitars
Zach Jeter // Vocals & Guitars
Dan Vadim Von // Bass
George Kollias // Drums
Online:
Genuine legends in the extreme music scene, Nile have earned their lofty place in the death metal pantheons thanks to their highly unique, highly technical and highly brutal output. Led by vocalist/guitarist/mastermind Karl Sanders, Nile’s newest opus The Underworld Awaits Us All is the group’s first release in nearly five years - and tenth full-length overall. With ancient Egyptian culture enveloping every aspect of the band’s material for their entire three-decade-plus career, and though, like any act of their lineage, the time between efforts has slowed down - this new effort sees the South Carolinans introduce new blood into their sandblasted ranks.
Though having undergone a few lineup changes in recent history, the core of Nile - Sanders and longtime drumming lieutenant George Kollias - remained steadfast. The addition of debutants Zach Jeter and Dan Vadim Von (Morbid Angel) - and Brian Kingsland, appearing on his sophomore Nile LP - add their hints of character or flavour to the mix, but, ultimately, this is a Nile recorded, through and through.
Direct and explosive opener 'Stelae of Vultures' shows off longtime drummer Kollias’ inhumane pace, and is a reminder the Greek national is a timeless wonder; worthy of his moniker as one of the finest ever to sit behind an extreme metal drum kit. The first single, and absolute mouthful - ‘Chapter for Not Being Hunted Upside Down on a Stake in the Underworld and Made to Eat Faces by the Four Apes’ - is classic, relentless Nile. Faster than a cheetah strapped to a rocket, it’s an example of the face-ripping extremity the band is capable of, as is the whip-cracking following single ‘To Strike with Secret Fang’.
On previous efforts, Nile has seemed to always struggle from one album to the next with a consistent sound in the studio, but the Mark Lewis mix - and Sanders' production - on their newest record is fantastic; the balance of ripping speed and epic scale is no easy feat. Speaking of, musically Nile have a couple of different modes; absolutely punishing - see the front section of the album - and cinematic-esque epics drenched in atmosphere. Nile’s back catalogue is littered with these weighty cuts, and the new record’s additions - the back-to-back epics ‘True Gods of the Desert’ and the title track - contain some of Underworld Awaits Us All's finest and most bombastic moments.
At times, the new LP does carry a bit of the feel of being ‘just’ another Nile release - 'Doctrine of Last Things' flies by without much to grab on to - but we’ll gladly admit it’s easy to take their brutality and brilliance for granted; songs like ‘Under the Curse of the One God’ rip and tear by at an eyewatering pace with plenty of dynamics across the board, while the middle ‘Overlords of the Black Earth’ highlights the bass work of Vadim Von.
Showing no signs of a backwards step or lack of power, despite being over 30 years deep into the extreme metal game, Nile sounds as passionate, intense and Egpyt-obsessed as ever. Though it's admittedly not their finest hour, The Underworld Awaits Us All is another very solid and worthy addition to the illustrious catacombs of Nile. If you are a longtime fan of the group or a tech-death freak, this fresh Nile LP is more than worthy of your time and hard-earned money; however, if you’re new here, start with Annihilation of the Wicked first.
Nile - The Underworld Awaits Us All tracklisting
- Stelae of Vultures
- Chapter for Not Being Hunted Upside Down on a Stake in the Underworld and Made to Eat Faces by the Four Apes
- To Strike with Secret Fang
- Naqada II Enter the Golden Age
- The Pentagrammathion of Nephren-Ka
- Overlords of the Black Earth
- Under the curse of the One God
- Doctrine of Last Things
- True Gods of the Desert
- The Underworld Awaits us All
- Laments for the Destruction of Time
Rating: 7.5/10
The Underworld Awaits Us All is out August 23rd on Napalm Records. Order here
Review By – Andrew Kapper. Twitter: @andrew_kapper
Revisit our interview with Karl Sanders here
