In two short years time NILE has established itself as a potent
musical entity so vital and massive that they live up to the stature of
the river from which they take their name. With just one record, a few
EP's and one world tour under their belt, NILE has raised the bar for
death metal bands musically, lyrically and conceptually. Couple this
with their precedent-setting live performances, and you have one of the
genre's brightest hopes for the new millennium. Now, with Black Seeds of
Vengeance, NILE stand poised to cement their place in the pantheon of
metal's elite.
Formed in 1993 by Karl Sanders (guitar/vocals), Chief Spires
(bass/vocals), and Pete Hammoura (drums), NILE wasted little time
combining their interest in Egyptian history, culture and lore with the
ferocity of modern death metal and a symphonic approach to songwriting
and arrangement. They hammered out a balanced attack that fused unique,
technical death metal with Middle Eastern tones and a lyrical approach
inspired by Sanders' interpretation of ancient Egyptian inscriptions,
temple carvings, papyri, hieroglyphics and tomb paintings depicting
ancient battles, rituals and religious ceremonies.
Each following year brought a new recording, each of which
marked a large step forward in their
musical evolution, and enabled NILE to further entrench themselves in an
underground that received them with open arms. Things really began to
gel in 1996 when, after recording and shopping three new songs, they
landed a deal with upstart label Visceral Productions and began
recording their debut full-length in addition to adding second
guitarist Dallas Toler-Wade.
However, the deal would not last as Visceral folded in late
1997. Relapse Records swiftly stepped into the picture and, after
hearing the record and witnessing the band's live show, a deal was
struck and the two prepared for the release of NILE's debut full-length
Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka.
"Amongst The Catacombs of Nephren-Ka" was a monumental testimony
of power that took the metal world by storm. Vicious guitar riffs
lashed out among tremendous drum blasts, frenzied guitar solos and a
powerful three-vocalist onslaught. The savage attack was adorned with
exotic instrumentation and symphonic Middle Eastern passages and chants
to form an all-out assault of the likes not heard before. Amongst...was
an adventurous and awesome piece of work and praise for their
accomplishment was quick to follow.
NILE commenced a grueling eighteen-month world tour shortly upon
the records release: one that would see them crisscross the states
numerous times before being invited to accompany Morbid Angel on their
world tour. The band, excited by the prospect of reaching new people,
seeing new places and simply
playing their music, unleashed an incredible live show on an
unsuspecting public. So driven by passion and hell bent to deliver on
Sanders' promise to "play every single note as if it were going to be
our last [and] give every bit of strength we have within us every time
we play," NILE converted thousands of new fans to their distinctive
sound with what has become one of the most celebrated live performances
the metal world has seen in years. By the time the tour ended with
their jaw-dropping European debut at Dynamo '99 and subsequent European
Tour, NILE were already being touted as one of metal's most ambitious
and fastest rising stars.
Upon their return home in August '99, Sanders and co. began work
assembling and arranging the pieces and ideas that had been brewing
since '97 (when the band completed recording Nephren-Ka). Encouraged by
the enthusiastic worldwide reception that the band's exploration of
Egyptian and Middle Eastern culture and exotic sounds received, and
driven by the need, in Sanders' words "...to create a massive record, a
kind of masterpiece," they began laying the groundwork for an epic sophomore
effort.
The writing didn't come easy. So ambitious and lofty were their
ideas that it became an obsession that took up all their waking moments.
Sanders spent every night composing, arranging, re-arranging and piecing
together all the movements like a symphony orchestra. The lyrics alone
took him almost a year as he sought to integrate them seamlessly with
the music "making the combination of both form one unified piece, with
each serving the other and working together to achieve the same thing."
The wildly technical composition Multitude of Foes also took Toler-Wade
a year to work out.
The band entered their second home--Columbia, SC's Soundlab
Studios--once again in May with
longtime producer Bob Moore to attempt to capture its most sprawling,
ambitious work to date. Black Seeds of Vengeance not only sidesteps the
dreaded sophomore slump, but it realizes the fruits of their intense and
arduous songwriting labors and places them in the upper echelon of metal
rank and file.
Black Seeds of Vengeance is a relentless, scathing death metal
assault that builds off the energy and atmosphere of Amongst... and
presents NILE's sound and fury in a slightly streamlined, yet even more
epic and colorful light. Violent passages of hyper-grinding fury
explode from ominous, deathly tranquility as the words and music paint
vivid tales of battle, conquest, domination, subjugation, war and
religious ritual. Intricate
symphonic passages comprised of African choirs and such diverse
instrumentation as tablas, tempuras, sitars, gongs, kettle drums,
Tibetan Doom horns and acoustic guitars wind their way through the
muscular
compositions, giving the songs an almost cinematic feel.
Sanders elaborates: "There's a lot more color and variation in
these pieces than Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka. There's more of
the extra instrumentation that was very sparingly used on Nephren-Ka and
they [the orchestrated passages] are integral, more highly-developed
parts of songs as opposed to just decoration."
"There are elements to the songwriting and construction that are
more streamlined, yet it has grown at the same time. It's not stripped
down or bare bones though. The things that give the songs the epic build
and feel are just placed more effectively than ever before."
"Nephren-Ka in comparison is a very straightforward, brutal kind
of record. There are probably people who are going to say, 'Why don't
they just go ahead and be as simply brutal as they were?' Seeds... is
brutal but it goes some other places too."
Songs such as Masturbating The War God, The Black Flame, Chapter
For Transforming Into A Snake and the unbelievable To Dream of Ur
accentuate Sanders' claims. "Masturbating The War God is, to me,
completely NILE. It tells an epic tale and is completely symphonic in a
death metal sense and at one point almost Kashmir-like in its build to
the climax. There are things in there that no one else would do except
for us," states Sanders.
In addition to the grandiose Egyptian elements and phrasing the
band also worked to, and succeeded in, capturing a magical element. "In
ancient Egypt, magic was almost as important as war and the actual
fighting," stated Sanders, "and there are definite magical elements to
The Black Flame. It's all very magical--the Egyptian process of saying
something, writing it and then doing it. So it shall be written. So it
shall be done."
With Black Seeds of Vengeance scheduled for release in
September, and with months of rehearsal under their belt, the NILE
touring machine is set to embark upon another staggering worldwide
offensive. The campaign begins in July where NILE will debut Black
Seeds of Vengeance on a North American co-headlining tour with CANNIBAL
CORPSE. A European offensive will follow in the late autumn months,
after which the band will hit the road for the remainder of 2000 and
2001.
Check out Nile's official website at www.nile-catacombs.net
