Nile seals the deal with The Underworld Awaits Us All.
Five years after their last release, the American band led by Karl Sanders (guitar/vocals/keyboards), George Kollias (drums, Embryo, ex-Contrarian, ex-Nightfall) and Brian Kingsland (guitar/vocals, Enthean, Imperishable), joined by Zach Jeter (guitar/vocals, Olkoth, Imperium) and Dan Vadim Von (bass, Morbid Angel), unveil The Underworld Awaits Us All, their tenth album.
The vocalists are accompanied by Mike Breazeale and Jason Hohenstein (Legion of Lunacy, ex-Serocs).
Nile‘s precise dissonant touch is apparent from the very first track, Stelae of Vultures, which lets its introduction linger before the massive rhythm sweeps us along in its flood of complexity. Vocal parts flow naturally to reinforce the heaviness, and slow moments quickly become majestic, like the final leading into Chapter for Not Being Hung Upside Down on a Stake in the Underworld and Made to Eat Feces by the Four Apes, whose devastating rage immediately won us over when the band unveiled it to announce the album’s release. This track has everything we love, whether in terms of violence, polished Old School influences or visceral screams – elements that we’ll come back to in full force on To Strike with Secret Fang, the following composition – while integrating relatively melodic leads to nuance the raw power. Naqada II Enter the Golden Age surprises us with more groovy influences at times, but the composition remains focused on its unbridled punch, nuanced by a few backing vocals, before the musicians give us a break with the oriental tones of The Pentagrammathion of Nephren-Ka. The instrumental ends to breathe new life into the album with Overlords of the Black Earth, which washes over us with ease before offering an extremely catchy moment that takes up the band’s new influences and blends them with their rage, culminating in Under the Curse of the One God, where fury soon comes to life at full speed, with a succession of blasts and crushing double kick. The composition ends with an ominous growl, then Doctrine of Last Things presents us with its heavy and relatively oppressive riffs mixed with explosive drums and some more surprising vocal parts. The track ends to make way for True Gods of the Desert, a long, jerky track that even dares a few more majestic moments where clear vocals take center stage, and the same goes for The Underworld Awaits us All, which totals over eight minutes during which the band displays all its power and technicality. At the end of this vast ocean of throbbing heaviness and savagery, Lament for the Destruction of Time comes to deliver us with nearly five minutes of asphyxiating instrumental, ending with the lead guitar’s requiem, sealing the album.
Although I had no doubts about the quality of this new album, Nile know how to surprise us with relatively new elements that fit in perfectly with their style. Of course, The Underworld Awaits Us All is an incredibly complex and brutal record, but it will also surprise you more than once.
95/100
Interview coming soon.