I really wanted to love the album from Nile, whatever form it took. Adoration, however, is never given, it’s earned.
Release date: August 23, 2024 | Napalm Records | Facebook | Instagram | Buy/Stream
Death metal has been going to all sorts of strange places in the last 20 years or so but Nile have been staying their course since their inception, trends be damned. Their technical and often brutal take on the genre has always been fierce and memorable due in part to the mythology that their music is couched in: the sacred texts and pantheon of ancient Egypt. Since Nile’s last album plenty about the world has changed, as some of the members of the band and even the label on which their music is being released. One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is how strong Nile‘s identity is and how great their music can be. The Underworld Awaits Us All is a clever, dynamic, and thoroughly consistent record that I will henceforth be making bold claims about throughout this review, so buckle up.
From the start, The Underworld Awaits Us All is unhinged, frenetic, and bursting with energy. The album’s first preview track “Chapter for Not Being Hung Upside Down on a Stake in the Underworld and Made to Eat Feces by the Four Apes” may hold the title for death metal track with the longest title this year. It also is brimming with things that make this song indelibly Nile. While the title seems nonsensical, it is inspired by punishments waiting for those found wanting in the afterlife. But in this life, the song simply kicks ass. Vintage technical death metal riffs, fretboard punishing solos, and top tier drumming are all hallmarks of Nile and coupled with the song’s lyrics and title, make it a song that only this band could create. It’s a fantastic song that genuinely showcases what Nile can do, and have always done. I must say that this initial splash into the new material has me far more invested in what they are offering up than any album since Ithyphallic. There’s one of those bold claims for you.
If ever I have had a gripe with Nile, it’s simply that they seem to never release an album that is less than an hour. Maybe for some that’s great, but for me, an hour of this kind of metal can get very tiresome, especially if the album lacks dynamics in any manner. Well, on The Underworld Awaits Us All, Nile have some tricks up their sleeve to avoid that level of fatigue that has haunted me with some of their previous efforts. The first part of this is simply staggering song lengths in the tracklist. There are only a few subsequent songs that have similar durations in the third quarter of the album, which certainly seems intentional. The album just flows so nicely from one song to the next and while it’s just as severe a beating as the rest of the Nile discography, the pacing and cadence are just so agreeable that it feels like a treat. Alright, back to the music.
One of the best and imaginative parts of the lore of Nile is how they have incorporated lots of different angles and approaches to imbue their albums with different moods and feelings. This was very present in their first two records but has waned a little over time and the band has at times embraced a more streamlined version of death metal. Thankfully on The Underworld Awaits Us All some of that comes back. The choral harmonies on “Naqada II Enter the Golden Age” the lovely instrumental passage, “The Pentagrammathion of Nephren-Ka” among many other great little moments and nods throughout the record. It feels like they have embraced more of what makes them unique on this record, leveraging the mythology in the right ways, and creating a record that feels well-rounded and complete.
The feeling of a ‘complete’ album is a theme that really stuck around throughout my listenings of this record. It’s not front loaded with bangers only to have the energy taper off as things wind down. This is a record that builds and builds to its finale in a way that feels intentional, both slowly and abruptly revealing new layers. “True Gods of the Desert” is a faceted track that really stretches the vocal range of both vocalists and pushes the band into borderline doom territory with its plodding pace, melodic vocal passages, and intricate movements. The penultimate and title track is the most expansive and intricate on the record, aptly so, and is honestly a genuine treat for anyone that is a fan of Nile, death metal, and just great music. Tempo changes, angular riffs, more vocal variance, and just one hell of a complex structure.
We’ve been waiting for a new record from Nile for a while now and even though I have mad love for this band, I was on the edge of my seat, waiting with bated breath to see what Karl Sanders and company had been cooking up for the last 5 years. I never imagined that we’d get such an album from them. While they’ve been nothing if not consistent over the decades, it seemed that a little bit of the spark of creativity that was present on their early albums had faded a bit here and there. Thankfully, The Underworld Awaits Us All embraces what makes Nile important, unique, and entertaining. This record showcases one of the best – if not the best – drummer in technical death metal, incredible riffs, dynamic songs and album structure, blistering solos, and a tracklist that is utterly loopable. This is the Nile record that I wanted and I am thrilled this is the one that we’re getting. This is the best Nile record, in my opinion, since their bona fide classic, Annihilation of the Wicked. It’s been a good year to be a fan of brutal and technical death metal and it puts a goofy grin on my face when I contemplate how high this album can climb.
