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It has been a long five years or so since 2019's excellent Vile Nilotic Rites blasted our eardrums and since then there have been some changes in the Nile camp, not least the departure of bassist Brad Parris to be replaced by Dan Vadim Von (currently the rhythm guitarist for Morbid Angel) and the addition of third guitarist/vocalist Zach Jeter. This is the most complete and well-rounded lineup for the band in years, never shy of multi-vocal attacks thanks to the classic duo of Karl Sanders and Dallas Toler-Wade but the first triple-guitar approach - and you can hear it on The Underworld Awaits Us All, something of a reinvigoration for the band not entirely dissimilar to that of Suffocation with last year's rabid Hymns from the Apocrypha. Maybe it's not quite as glisteningly modern a makeover as that album was for the New Yorkers yet so intense and heavy are initial listens to The Underworld Awaits Us All that it feels somewhat overwhelming and unmemorable. This isn't helped by an unbalanced tracklisting that puts many of the heavier, brutaller death metal attacks at the start and the more moody and atmospheric pieces towards the end... Still, give it time to work its dark magic and this album will please a lot of Nilomaniacs. Epic opener Stelae of Vultures begins in classic Nile fashion with riff and drum trades building to an explosion of galloping death metal, as intense and technical as the band's reputation leads us to expect. It shows off the high levels of musicianship here well, a lengthy solo battle and a slowing of tempo into doom territory both exciting the senses, and the performances from all, particularly underappreciated blaster George Kollias, are tremendous. Songwriting throughout the album is at a peak, particularly once your ears have adjusted to the band's brand of brutality. The sub-two-minute blaster To Strike with Secret Fang continues in the spirit of previous little monsters such as Multitude of Foes and Snake Pit Mating Frenzy, an outrageously technical burst of grandiose and molten metal. It acts as a sort of deranged intro to the following Naqada II Enter the Golden Age, blasting along merrily for the first part before opening into a progressive- and then thrash-tinged piece with added female backing choirs for emphasis. Said female choirs pop back up several times throughout the album but there's nothing quite as avant-garde as your reviewer wished for in his write-up of Vile Nilotic Rites, sadly. The album can't really be called predictable even though the expected brief atmospheric interlude The Pentagrammathion of Nephren-Ka comes and goes without leaving much impact, and the expected deranged chanting that's a signature piece for the band seems like an afterthought on Under the Curse of the One God, stuck at the end incongruously. The expected dips into doom work well when they come, such as the Bolt Thrower-esque intensity of Doctrine of Last Things that shifts its tempos almost dangerously fast, or the eight minute True Gods of the Desert which feels truly massive, a groovy pounder fit for one of the band's classic albums, complete with true doom-leaning clean vocals. The main issues with Nile brought up in previous reviews remain but these are increasingly features, not bugs - the sense that the band are chasing past successes, the pyramid-obsessed artworks, the even more ridiculous than ever song titles. Yet the worst offender of the latter, Chapter for Not Being Hung Upside Down on a Stake in the Underworld and Made to Eat Feces by the Four Apes, manages to redeem itself by being a genuine highlight, featuring some of the best usage of the new vocalists fitting in with the usual choppy death metal rampage as they provide something a little different with gasps and yells. And it's all aided by an excellent production that even manages to give the bass moments in the (harsh desert) sun on the likes of Overlords of the Black Earth. By the time you've reached the epic 8 minute title track, which calls back to the Annihilation of the Wicked era in its infectious riffs, more melodic and thrashy than other pieces if slightly repetitive towards its end, it's hard not to feel as though Nile have struck it out of the park once again. And that's only confirmed by the closing instrumental Lament for the Destruction of Time, another doomy stomper that leans into the classic Nile melodic touch for a suitably melancholic outro with wordless female wails. Other fans will have their own ranking yet this is currently on level pegging with Vile Nilotic Rites as an example of a veteran band producing great works late in their career - long may the true gods of the desert reign. |
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Killing Songs : Stelae of Vultures, Naqada II Enter the Golden Age, Doctrine of Last Things, True Gods of the Desert, and of course, Chapter...! |
Goat quoted 82 / 100 | |||||||||||||||
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