Festivals of Atonement

Like most other people, I discovered Nile through what is considered their most successful album "Annihilation of the Wicked". Sure, It's a decent release in it's own way, but this is what Nile should've been like for the rest of their career in my humble opinion.

Before Nile went for that crushing brutal/technical death sound, their early releases were also rooted in thrash somewhat, especially when it comes to Chief Spires' vocals, while still having that technical oriental riffing-style which would become Nile's very own but to a lesser degree. And to be fair, that's what i loved most about this EP, is that it combines that technicality with killer death/thrash riffs & vocals, without letting go off of those beautiful oriental melodies. Everything is mixed and combined so well, and keeping in mind that the boys were also fairly new to the scene and having barely any knowledge or experience is also very important in this case.

The main influence behind this EP is obviously Celtic Frost, though it might not be so obvious to everyone i suppose. Nile also used those creepy electronic effects as interludes to songs like 'Frost did, as well as the Chief's vocals who are a bit influenced by them as well. I believe there is also a part in the song "Godless" at about 2:33 which is extremely similar to "Innocence and Wrath" (0:22). And the last thing im gonna mention about Nile's Celtic Frost influences is the doomy riffs that they made use of, as we all know Celtic Frost would often throw those doom metal sections in song or even put out a whole doom metal song through their first 2 albums, Nile did that as well.

Now that I'm done with how Celtic Frost influenced this EP, let me move on to say what i appreciate the most about this album. First of all, the production is very great, like really. I'd say even better than the production on anything else they put out. It's raw, but just the right amount of rawness to fit the sound. The drum tone is also perfectly fitting, and of course the guitar tone is like no other. Nile knew what they were going for since the very start, and you can recognize them as soon as the first note plays because of that amazing guitar tone. Second, the use of those traditional egyptian instruments (or whatever you wanna call them) is the cherry on top. The way they manage to make them sound perfect along with the other typical instruments is absolutely amazing, and the musicianship that Karl, Chief and Pete share is truly wonderful. They were totally made for each other to be.

To end things off, I might've stated that "their brutal/technical death stuff is not as good as this", but i still think that style of death metal they did was pretty good too, especially with the next three releases (Ramses demo, Catacombs and Black Seeds). But i feel like everything they did after that point was just too much and unnecessary, technicality doesn't always equal good music and let alone if it's done excessively. So to it's own right, I'll say that the brutal/tech death stuff is great, but the true Nile spirit died when Chief and Pete left.

If you look at this first ep...and Nile's latest album In Their Darkened Shrines, you can see that Karl Sanders is the musical genious behind this band. Although Nile's sound has improved in these last ten or so years (faster, heavier, more complex, intenser, better vocals, pretty much an improvement on everything) the core of what Nile is has remained unchaged from this first Nile ep, the only reason they are better is because they got better musicians, the great song writing has remianed the same since its Karl's doing. Alot of bands change from their early demo/ep days, like Behemoth for example. Nile still played death metal with both powerful and atmospheric artifical sounds and melodies back in 1995. The complexity and skill has changed over the years..but Nile remains what they are today thanks to Karl Sanders keeping the band consistent since day one, I believe it is him that makes this album and this band so great.

The music delivered here like I said is similiar to most Nile, and for the bands first ep its damn good. The vocals aren't as good from their newer stuff, they kinda sounds like a weak Chris Barnes, but what do you expect from a vocalist that left Nile to create a Nu metal/death metal crossover band. The vocals are good though and they have their moments, but a few times, mostly on The Black Hand Of Set, they absolutly are horrible and painful to listen to. They start to sound less death metal and more like Oscar from sesame street (the dude in the garbage can). They just sound a bit goofy, but its not often on the album, most of the time they are deep and harsh. But when they do sound bad it takes away from the music alot. Thankfully this album focuses more on the instruments.

The drums are still great, just think of a simpler version of In Their Darkened Shrines drums'. They can match the newer albums speed, but the complexity is a bit lacking. The drums here are better than what you will find on most death metal albums, the have power, are loud, and can get very fast and heavy. Whats interesting and enjoayble about a good many of the songs, particularly on Wrought, is the band combines most everything about what makes Nile good and puts it on one song. On Wrought the band uses their great drumming, the speed of it, and combines it with the heavy guitar which plays great riffs, and lays in some rhythym with keyboards or computer generated sounds that mimic classic or acoustic instruments. The synthetic sounds give this songs alot of range and rhythym, making them more than just generic death metal (good generic death metal), and they sound authentic too, or as close as possible with the equipment they have, not like they are fake. Of course here Nile introduces with sucess their powerful apocalyptic destructive god chants, like on the intro to extinct. A sound found on all of Nile's later works that gives them range, volume, power, and making Nile a unique band of their own.

This is the birth of one of Death Metals most unique bands, this is just as enjoyable as any of their other works, even if it sounds a bit primative and naive in comparison. Its just interesting to see what a band was like before they were anything. That and the great music delivered on this ep makes it worth owning for any Nile fan, if you are not a Nile fan, get their full lengths first, then look for this demo or the compilation In the Beginning that has both of Nile's eps. If you can get past the few moments of horrible Oscar The Grouch Vocals, (there is only like one to two minutes of them on the entire ep so its not so bad) this is an Album for you.