Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Nile
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release: 2007
Aaaah… The two years of rest since the band’s last record, Annihilation of the Wicked (2005), were enough! Nile have woken up from their slumber somewhere deep in the chambers of Cheops’ pyramid and grabbed the oars again. The Nile is flooding, and it’s time for a new voyage! The death metal sensation from South Carolina is back with its fifth studio album, Ithyphallic, for its new label, Nuclear Blast Records. Eeee… if I can lean on the new record’s awkward title (ancient civilizations just really valued, even worshipped, all sorts of phallic imagery), which means an erection…. yep, the American trio is standing at attention again.
In thirteen years together, Nile have built themselves an enviable name and today rightfully share the death metal champions’ title with a handful of other big names of old-school death. Right from the start of their career they grabbed attention with brutal yet remarkably refined technical death metal, which they built up with a theme all their own, one they’ve kept for all thirteen years – Egyptian mythology, culture, religion and art. So let’s see what Ithyphallic brings.
Well, you could say Ithyphallic is a direct continuation of the previous record, Annihilation of the Wicked. To the disappointment of some fans, Annihilation almost dropped the Egyptian/Central Asian passages and influences and focused mostly on the more brutal, technical side of the music. Ithyphallic carries on in a similar direction, but between the crushing riffs, death metal solos and murderous drumming it works in a bit more Egyptian flavor, acoustic guitars and instruments that further back up the lyrical theme. There’s no doubt Nile are first and foremost brutal death, but they carefully build the music up with technical passages, unique guitar lines and frenzied drumming.
Sadly, though, Ithyphallic keeps reheating old ideas, and the guys obviously got a little scared of their debut for a new label and reined in their experimenting. As soon as the bombastic intro with horns and howling wolves wraps up, there’s the good old Nile we know. George Kollias is an absolute animal behind his kit, but ultra-fast kicking on the bass drums, brutal blast beats and endlessly repeated fills aren’t everything. A little variety wouldn’t hurt at all, since the drumming is practically the same in every single song. The occasional typical death metal a.k.a. “Kerry King” solos, with randomly played notes that go nowhere, deserve some flak too.
And that’s really all you can hold against the new record. Nile are still masters of writing both short and long tracks. The eight-minute opener What May Safely Be Written never gets boring for a second thanks to its many tempo changes. Right from the start you’re hit by the variety, which runs all the way from supersonic death metal speed to slow, crushing doom metal riffs. Unlike Annihilation of the Wicked, Ithyphallic is, despite two epics, an album of shorter, murderously fast tracks, as As He Creater, So He Destroys already proves. If you know Nile, you know you can expect at least one title per record that winds on like a snake. This time it’s Papyrus Containing the Spell to Preserve Its Possessor Against Attacks From He Who Is In the Water (phew… yeah, 17 words), which musically has absolutely nothing in common with its title. Short, rawly brutal three minutes you won’t find anywhere else! The Sanders/Wade duo shows off their guitar mastery on The Essential Salts, which surprises with melodic passages and an unbelievable duel of solos. Sanders and Wade also handle the album’s vocals. Even though these are fairly typical “cookie monster” vocals, the two vocalists bring a lot of variety to the music, and their brutal growls are perfectly intelligible too, which is quite different from the older records, where Sanders grunted like a little piglet. The Infinity of Stone is a short acoustic-ambient piece that could easily have landed on Sanders’ solo album Saurian Meditation. One of the best shorter tracks is The Language od Shadows, where Sanders and Wade shine on vocals again and bring more melody into the music with fantastic guitars. But Nile really shine in epic tracks like the ten-minute closer Even the Gods Must Die, which starts with horns much like the first song, but carries on with ultra-heavy “doomy” riffs and tips over into a death metal explosion. The real surprise is the last three minutes, which shift into an acoustic finale with tribal drums and Sanders’ almost bluesy electric guitar.
The biggest minus of the new Nile record is that it really doesn’t bring anything new. The Americans stay conservative, maybe even playing with a bit in reserve, but Ithyphallic is still a pleasure to listen to. When it comes to death metal, Nile hold a spot all their own and rise above the crowd of death metal bands. I was hoping Ithyphallic would be a bolder, more experimental record, but even good old Nile are still one of the best death metal bands around!
Lineup
Karl Sanders – vocals, guitar
Dallas Toler Wade – bass, guitar, vocals
George Kollias – drums
Production
Neil Kernon
Track list
1. What Can Be Safely Written 08:15
2. As He Creates, So He Destroys 04:36
3. Ithyphallic 04:40
4. Papyrus Containing the Spell to Preserve Its Possessor Against Attacks From He Who Is In the Water 02:57
5. Eat of the Dead 06:29
6. Laying Fire Upon Apep 03:25
7. The Essential Salts 03:51
8. The Infinity of Stone 02:04
9. The Language of the Shadows 03:30
10. Even the Gods Must Die 10:01
