Annihilation of the Wicked

There’s a good handful of people I know who are convinced this is the only Nile album you need, and there’s a compelling case to be made there (though there’s a weirdly large subset of the fanbase that praises its two predecessors more). After getting increasingly obfuscating and dense in their layering and execution, Annihilation of the Wicked is more concise and verse oriented while keeping their stupefying musicianship, resulting in a lot more riffs you actually remember. I don’t know what caused them to finally get that their Achilles heel up until now had been their songwriting.

The backbone of George Kollias is a huge part of Nile circumventing their shortcomings, and this just so happens to be his grand entrance into the band after originally honing his craft in Nightfall and Sickening Horror. The dude is unquestionably who you think of when Nile’s core comes to mind, even though they already had a pretty considerable amount of hype behind them. If there was ever a reason to fanboy over Kollias, it’d be these songs. The furious, blistering tracks like “Sacrifice Unto Sebek” and “Chapter of Obeisance” are the perfect place for him to highlight his mind-boggling foot speed and long, dexterous fills (that are actually tastefully placed, I’m looking at you, Tony “every bar needs a fill” Laureano), bringing out the groove in his play style many of his detractors suggest he lacks. There’s no single X factor that elevates his performance above Laureano and Hammoura’s earlier skinwork, he’s just got a better set of tools: more feel in his cymbals, more stamina to sustain the faster sections, and a modicum of tact with his crazy snare rolls (though they can still get a bit masturbatory, this is Nile after all). This man is a certified beast on the drums for one reason - Annihilation of the Wicked.

As cool and distinct as Nile’s theme is, it does sometimes have a tendency to get in the way. The band has a tendency to draw out the atmosphere at the expense of an album that really grips you from front to back, but even the slow boring “we’re an Egyptian band” songs that Nile always does work well here. It’s mostly the songwriting, as they’ve trimmed the fat and show you just enough wanking to leave you wanting more. The other factor is the production - it’s really clean, almost to the point of clinicality, but there’s a residual prickling warmth somewhere in between the guitars and bass that opens up the songs while also giving them the grit and weight they need. There’s still the occasional moment, such as the closing track, where they lose the plot to venture up their own ass for a bit, but I’ll forgive them for making a few dramatic diversions to close the thing out. They were still smart enough to front-load the album with the riffy songs so you’re more than satiated, so they end up being a necessity. I kind of wish they would do fast songs exclusively, but I guess I just have to accept that most bands prefer variety and don’t want to sound like Brodequin. Plus, the times that Nile does just focus on speed, the results don’t work as well (see: What Should Not Be Unearthed)

If you like the idea of Nile but are still waiting for the right album to click, you need to listen to this. It’s not only the most accessible release for non-fans, it’s also their most explosive, directed and focused. Karl Sanders brought his A game and a lot of the verse riffs actually sound like verse riffs this time. Annihilation of the Wicked thrusts you right into the center of its atmosphere, while something like In Their Darkened Shrines noodles about your periphery and gently invites you in...but it doesn’t make you enter the door and as such leaves little lasting impression. Conversely, if you don’t like this album as much…I dunno, maybe you’re just not into em? This is the first of five albums featuring the legendary Sanders/Wade/Kollias trinity - they were chasing the magic of Annihilation of the Wicked the entire time, with a couple of moments where they were on the verge of the greatness of this afterward. Inevitably, lightning doesn't strike twice, but fortunately for you, this came out on a major label so it’s super easy to find a copy of it at a reasonable price. This is one of the most popular death metal albums from the 2000s for good reason. As the kids say, it fuckin’ slaps.

This album is a staple of the brutal/tech death sub-genre, and one of the finest examples of the death metal of the 2000s.

"Annihilation Of The Wicked" is a truly monumental release, an album with a very dark and foreboding theme behind it that manages to execute its sound and theme on the edge of perfection, all the while having some incredibly good lyricism, accompanied by amazing drumming and riffing that only adds to the overall atmosphere of the record.

The riffs on this fucking thing are mind boggling, a great example of which is the relentless riffing that occurs just as "Cast Down The Heretic" starts, which then quiets down for a couple seconds only to come back stronger and introduce the specially brutal vocals of the singers, all the while the blistering drumming of then "new" drummer Kolias take you into a state of total bliss. Another thing to point out on this track, is that the absolute behemoth of a solo is over 2 minutes long and features many techniques of guitar playing, going from slow and very catchy, melodic tempos to fast and sweeping passages.

Another great example of the riffing and quality of the guitar playing on this project is the "crying" guitars of the title track, which build up before a groovy and galloping riff introduce you to the main riffs and verses of the song, and as the song progresses you get to experience the great atmosphere that can be built if you use the lyrics and song length to your advantage (doesn't hurt the fact that you also have insanely good vocalists, ha!), something that is only made clearer and more obvious on the fantastic "User-Maat-Re" which takes the lyricism to the next level, accompanied by some crushing riffs and more relaxed, slow and mid tempo changes.

Of course, if we're talking riffs we need to address "Lashed To The Slave Stick" and "Sacrifice Unto Sebek" the latter of which opens with a crushing and groovy riff which leads into a song which is not scared to change the pace at certain points, and manages to work so, so well during the 3 minutes that it's blessing your ears. "Lashed To The Slave Stick" on the other hand, has what I would consider Nile's best ever chorus as well as the best post-chorus they've done, not to mention (again) that the riffs are incredible.

Now, before I go into the bad of the album (and believe me there's very little) allow me to bring up a point I made earlier and elaborate on it, lyricism. The lyricism in this album and overall band only make the experience better, a lot of death metal has the same overly-edgy, tired themes of violence and depravities that in all honestly get boring after the 70th time you look at them, and there's where Nile decided to apply a theme to them so that even if they're still dark and violent there's at least a difference, and this difference being the history of an ancient and mystical civilization, that to be completely honest, was as brutal as this music.

Getting to the bad now, I'm glad to announce there's only a singular thing I have against this album, and that's the final song "Von unaussprechlichen Kulten", a song that while good, fails to impress, considering the sheer quality of the past songs, all the while I feel like it completely fails as an album closer, and honestly the album should've ended with the perfect title track "Annihilation Of The Wicked".

Highlights: "Cast Down the Heretic", "Sacrifice unto Sebek", "User-Maat-Re" and "Annihilation of the Wicked".

In 2005, Nile dropped their magnum opus Annihilation of the Wicked. This also happens to be Nile's most progressive album in their Relapse Records era. A rare feat for a death metal band, newcomers should expect death growls by multiple vocalists and lyrics based on Egyptian mythology.

The album doesn't give you a break and punishes the listener with a barrage of some of the best technical death metal out there. Once the intro track finishes, "Cast Down the Heretic" comes barging out with an epic mix of blast beats and guitar soloing which is a perfect way to start off Annihilation of the Wicked. Other highlights on the album include "User ~ Maat ~ Re" which has some really cool tempo changes and epic guitar solos, "Lashed to the Slave Stick" for being a rather groovy number by death metal standards while not sounding like Pantera, and the one-two punch track "Spawn of Uamenti / Annihilation of the Wicked" which takes Nile's influences from progressive rock, technical thrash, and death metal, and makes them shine at its fullest. I'd say this is arguably the best track on this album and Dallas Toler-Wade alone is the MVP on Annihilation of the Wicked due to his virtuoso guitar playing that's heavily inspired by Trey Azagthoth. This is easily why Toler-Wade had a long tenure with Nile and it shows once you listen.

Dallas Toler-Wade is obviously not the only guitarist on Annihilation of the Wicked as bandleader Karl Sanders loves doing trade-offs on the album with the former. Some of the solos on the album are not fast as others, with "Chapter of Obeisance" and "Von unaussprechlichen Kulten" being prime examples of this as the song is moreso inspired by Blessed Are the Sick-era Morbid Angel as they have some partial doom metal influence. George Kollias' drumming is all over the place as you won't find a song that doesn't have blast beats singling out "Lashed to the Slave Stick" as the song with his best performance. Jon Vesano's bass playing is not as noticeable, but considering that Annihilation of the Wicked is literally Nile's ...And Justice for All, this isn't really a big deal. However Vesano along with Sanders and Toler-Wade all share the role of lead vocals on this release and my god, this album is angry. If the color of the album cover doesn't convince you, then listen to this with headphones on. The lyrics mostly deal with death and torture and this is definitely an example of why death metal is a difficult genre to get into.

But once you start to appreciate the complexity of Annihilation of the Wicked, you're rewarded with an album that contains the strongest musicianship Nile had in their prime. This is often considered by fans to be Nile's strongest outing and I strongly agree. Reckless and relentless as it is, it's a perfect starting point to get into Nile's Egyptian fantasy land.

This album is the angriest sounding Nile album to date. The overall sound is dark and heavy. It makes me think of a dark, cursed filled tomb and other times it sounds white hot with anger. The drums seem to rattle and bear down on the listener while still remaining precise. The way distorted growls clash with the clearness of the drums is something to enjoy. I will admit that sometimes the drums sound a little bit too loud on some tracks and it kind of draws your attention away from the other instruments.

What amazes me is how fast the songs sound. I looked up what some of the beats per minute online and what I found was Lashed to the Slave stick is 187 beats per minute and Sacrifice Unto Sebek clocks in at 184 bpm. I used songbpm.com for these statistics. According to their site the average death metal song is 117 beats per minute. It blows my mind how everything can sound so clean at speeds like this.

This album is an absolute must. "Cast Down The Heretic" and :Lashed To The Slave Stick" are two of Nile's best songs. To hear them together with all of the other songs on this album is the experience as the band intended. One of the best things about this album is the atmosphere of the album. It feels mystical and brutally evil.

There is a good amount of instrumental tracks and longer songs that put all the pieces together for an interesting listen. They offer some respite between the hard hitting tracks. This is important to me because it helps me process the music versus just getting overwhelmed by it. With death metal sometimes I am not able to enjoy certain albums because are no breaks or pacing. This album handles it's pacing very well without sacrificing anything.

With their reputation established, a more or less stable line-up and the praise of the international metal press South Carolina band Nile had become comfortable within the little niche they had carved out for themselves over the years. With fans starting to salivate uncontrollably at the mere mention of a new recording, there was no incentive to push their sound into darker, more challenging territory. Never the great innovators, they enrolled Greek drummer George Kollias and Jon Vesano was reduced to studio musician status in order for him to combine his employment with being part of Nile. As a result this is Vesano’s last recording, although he would be involved on a session basis for later recordings. “Annihilation Of the Wicked” was the first Nile album to not bring anything substantially new to the table. After three records of carving out and redefining their core sound, the band was now perfectly content where they were at their current musical destination. So how exactly does “Annihilation Of the Wicked” sound? As a stripped down version of “In Their Darkened Shrines” more than anything, really – its angrier, faster and more drum-oriented, but nothing more than that.

One of the great things about Nile is that they never lost a beat in replacing a member, no matter how well-loved or vital. Jon Vesano became a glorified studio musician, and Tony Laureano was duly replaced by Greek drummer George Kollias without any sort of hesitation on the band’s part. Kollias’ debut with the band is seamless, and while he has a wildy different style of drumming than Laureano, Roddy or Hammoura – he at least attempts to make the transition as painless as possible. The thing is that Kollias has a very busy sounding fill-oriented style, whereas Hammoura was more ‘open’ in his playing and Laureano had a more ‘circular’ style in the sense that he used every part of his kit at the most opportune of times. In terms of speed and intensity Kollias is at a similar level of skill as his illustrious mercenary predecessors. It also helps that the drum production is absolutely massive, and every part of his kit sounds stellar.

Another thing that is record is known for its minimal usage of ethnic instrumentation, monk chants and atmospheric interludes. Outside of the acoustic guitar intro, there’s only the instrumental track ‘Spawn Of Uamenti’ which tallies a grand total of 2 minutes combined out of a 52-minute album. It is as if Nile wanted to prove how brutal and technical they could be after the tour-de-force that was “In Their Darkened Shrines”. There are three signature tracks on this record, and they are mostly in the style of the band’s newfound appreciation for primal brutality than they are atmospheric. ‘Cast Down the Heretic’, ‘Lashed To the Slave Stick’ and ‘Sacrifice Unto Sebek’ are faster, heavier and more technical interpretations of their debut album’s basic sound all those years prior. No really, “Annihilation Of the Wicked” is the album “Among the Catacombs Of Nephren-Ka” always wanted to be, but couldn’t due to any number of contributing human factors. One cannot fault the band for that, as even the simplest of material of “Among…” took an unreal amount of talent, skill and discipline to master – the fact that “Annihilation Of the Wicked” is all that, but more technical, faster and demanding on all fronts is nothing short of awe-inspiring in terms of the musicians involved. That this would be the last worthwhile Nile record makes it even more bittersweet in retrospect.

Much of the writing style is similar to “In Their Darkened Shrines” with the difference that the band isn’t afraid to slow down every once in a while. The three-way vocal interplay is better organized than on the preceding record. Most of the vocals are split between Vesano and Toler-Wade with Sanders only sparsely contributing. The riffing is slightly more melodic, while the riff construction and note placement has evolved little since the record that became before. The bass playing mostly doubles the riffs, whether this can be contributed to Vesano’s studio-only involvement, or the writing on part of Sanders is something I’ll leave in the middle. Truthfully, the bass guitar lines were far more interesting in the records before this one. Here they mean nothing, and their contribution only seems to be that of bottom-end heaviness, but nothing beyond that.

There is a greater emphasis on lead/solo work with this album, which is a welcome improvement on all fronts. “In Their Darkened Shrines” already hinted upon such evolution and it is great to see it fully realized here. Whether it is Toler-Wade or Sanders delivering the leads/solos, they are sparkly and lively. Not that both of them ever reach Schuldiner, Suzuki, Santolla or Azagthoth-like levels of composition or excess, they are at least playing solos – and in a scene where that practice was rapidly becoming a lost art, such a thing has to be applauded. You could say that this album sounds far more Californian on a number of levels. The blasting and riffing tends to remind of early Deeds Of Flesh and Decrepit Birth, especially the latter that was rising to higher levels of prominence around the release of this record. Thankfully, Nile is far more musical than the average Californian death metal band. They were on this particular record, at any rate. There isn’t the same sense of cohesion and unity on this record as there was on “In Their Darkened Shrines”, and that kind of takes the effect down in any number of ways. At times it is even hard to tell where one song stops and the other one begins, but that is more of an ill of contemporary death metal than it is of Nile’s own undoing.

This would also be the last Nile record to remotely look good, because after this the band worked with a succession of lesser known cover artists that were hit-and-miss, to say the least. The most obvious offender in that regard is the direct follow-up to this record: “Ithyphallic” and the recently released “At the Gates Of Sethu”, which is equally as ugly in terms of cover art. Those albums unfortunate choices of cover art is nothing but a stark reminder that even big-budget, fully professional and international touring death metal acts can screw up as royally as their inexperienced underground peers. For the third time Wes Benscoter provided the artwork, while the design and lay-out was handled by Relapse in-house artist Orion Landau. The production by Bob Moore at Sound Lab in South Carolina is largely similar to the one of “In Their Darkened Shrines” with the biggest differences being the far cleaner guitar tone, and the absolutely massive sounding drums of new recruit George Kollias.

The album is perfunctory and reliable, but misses the highlights of the preceding record. ‘Cast Down the Heretic’, ‘Lashed To the Slave Stick’ and ‘Sacrifice Unto Sebek’ (for which the band shot a promotional video) are the songs that instantly stand out, and along with ‘Burning Pits Of the Duat’ they embody everything worthwhile about this release. It isn’t Nile’s best, it certainly wasn’t their worst – but expectations were only partially met. Still, at this point the band and this release were still head and shoulders above their many competitors and copycats. “Annihilation Of the Wicked” is a solid, reliable record – but nothing more than that.

Review originally written for Least Worst Option - www.leastworstoption.com

This is Nile's best album by far. The production on this album is much improved over what came before. This also contains the first song from this band that I had heard, Lashed to the Slave Stick, and it was good enough to warrant a full listen to this album. Along with the better production, this also features very technical playing on a couple of instruments, some satisfying aspects from the brutal niche, and some pretty good songwriting.

The production here is interesting. It's tilted towards the guitars and vocals, with the bass largely nonexistent. Normally, I prefer for the bass to have a bigger presence in the sound, but their bassier predecessor, In Their Darkened Shrines, isn't a very pleasing listen, so this probably was the right call. The sound doesn't end up trebly though, as the way the guitar is high in the mix is different itself. It has that blown-up like a balloon sound, that ends up working up perfectly for them. The sound actually brings images to my mind of a Berber caravan, loaded with salts and other goods, wandering the Sahara. Honestly, the production itself does more for the Egyptian feel than any of the actual music.

The drumming is pretty excellent. Kolias has your typical very fast, very hard hitting style you would expect from this type of music. The difference is that I don't think I've heard another drummer pull this off better. For modern, aggressive death metal drumming, Kolias essentially functions as the gold standard. He also ended their revolving door at the kit, and brought to bear something that could rival the guitars, a boon that helps make this album as great as it is. The vocals are shared between three, but I'm not too keen on any of them. That's not to say that they're bad, but they sound too similar, and just don't do near as much for me as the Carcass trade-off does. These two aspects are the ones that remind me the most of the brutal side. The very guttural, trading vocals, and the punishing drumming are more common to a brutal than technical band. The guitar playing is very intricate at times, such as Duat. "Lashed," is a little simpler, and their are some other pieces that aren't as demanding, but most of this is. The speed can get pretty fast on the guitars, but this isn't blinding for anyone used to death metal. This and the songwriting itself are the most tech-like aspects, though Kolias' playing would be hard to duplicate. For a very complex piece, this is pretty memorable stuff. I can recall certain sections and songs that I enjoyed pretty easily, and there aren't any of the drawn-out solos that seem to bother so many.

This album reminds me of a few different bands. Suffocation's Pierced From Within seems to have been a blueprint for how they pull off their mixture of Brutal and Technical death metal. The latter is probably the stronger in this mix, but the former is still a key ingredient, and there is a reason that this is listed the way that it is. The other side of this album shows up in it's more straightforward numbers. These numbers remind me of both Deicide and Dying Fetus to various degrees. The latter also shows up in the vocals, which do sound quite alike. I'm not sure if Nile were influenced by them or not, but it is quite a similarity. The former shows up more subtly, both in Kolias' relentlessness on the skins, and some of the riffing. I can't put my finger on why, but some of the shorter song's riffing does remind me of a mutated Deicide.

To the songs' themselves, most of this is falls into three camps. You have the short instrumentals, the normal songs, and the epics which all run about nine minutes. The first instrumental is kind of pretty, but the second one is just boring. Neither really does much for me, but only the second is actually dragging the album down. The normal songs are probably the best, particularly Cast Down the Heretic and Lashed to the Slave Stick. The epics are mostly good, except somewhat for the last. The last epic drags a little for me at the end. It isn't bad, but it felt like it was delaying the end and would have worked better at about six minutes.

This being the first you hear really is a factor. As previous reviewers have mentioned, the production is the main change from the previous albums. The music itself hasn't changed much even from the debut. Sure, there's a flourish or something more or less, but this is essentially the honing of a formula. This doesn't bother me, as I don't visit the early ones often. Frankly, they almost sound like demo versions of this one. Their are some different titles, but a number of riffs and other aspects are similar. If you have and enjoy the previous albums, this may or may not work for you. I would recommend that this be the first Nile you hear, and that you move forwards rather than backwards. I'm not saying that the new ones are better, but unless you really love their formula, or are just going to yank specific tracks, then repetitiveness will kick in faster that way. This album ought to work for any fan of death metal, but particularly fans of the bands and styles that I've mentioned.

Hey kiddies! Does your music seem to lack a needed edge that gives it replayability? Do you listen to albums once, put them in a drawer and try to forget they exist, and when you remember them again you get the "-core dry-heaves"? Have you found yourself enjoying music less in general since then? Enter Nile, probably the biggest face in tech-death today. Well, the only one worth noticing. (Yes, Necrophagist is over there. Don't stare, it's not polite.) Nile's music always seems to have the edge that most technical bands lack, and probably my favorite thing about them: they seem to know the difference between "genuinely talented" and "Hey look, I can sweep back and forth for four minutes, call it a song, and do it ten more times and make an album!"

To the music we march! We start this album with the instrumental "Dusk Falls Upon The Temple Of The Serpent on the Mount of Sunrise". (A thing you'll soon notice about this band: they sure do like their long-winded song names. Perhaps lead vocalist Karl Sanders uses it to practice on increasing his lung capacity?) It's a super-short 50 seconds long, so if you're shopping for your instrumental epics here look elsewhere. I'm sure that some people will enjoy this track, probably mostly true musicians, but personally this song didn't arouse much unusual attention from me. It doesn't seem to serve much purpose, other than to clarify that this band's main focus is on Egyptian mythology, which any dumbass could assume from the song names, the album name, or the album art. Oh, well. On to the - HOLY SHIT! Yes, though the first track of this album is a bit of a letdown, Nile quickly picks up the pace with the fastest and overall most brutal song on this album, "Cast Down The Heretic". The main riff is extremely addicting: although it's a simple tremolo, it sticks with the listener for quite a long time. Thankfully, the listener will take joy in knowing that the fast, relentless pace of this song doesn't let up until the 4:30 mark, and even then not until letting a massive guitar solo take place. Now I'll say right here: I do not like guitar solos. If it were up to me, all but, say, three or four extremely notable solos, all the others would be destroyed from the face of the Earth. Thus, I say with happiness that the guitar solo in this song at least gave me a bit of enjoyment. At the beginning of the solo, it focuses entirely on groove, which is what all guitar solos should focus on, but then it converts to pure wanking. Although I hate it, it mixes the wanking with more groove later by going up a few notes and giving the guitar a creepy, ominous tone; one that makes you wish the whole song was constructed around it, that it lasted forever. After this, however, you can hear the telltale signs that the solo is wrapping up: the feeling that the guitar is slowly rising notes at a time, the solo is repeating what it did at the beginning of the song, and if a different sound was achieved during the solo, it slowly attempts to transition back without anyone noticing. Anyway, after the solo is over, we come to what resembles a form of a slam accompanied by chanting of the song's title over and over. Since the vocals are the main focus of the song here, I might as well cover them. Karl Sander's vocal style is quite...unique. It's a bit like George Fisher's style, but less pathetic and more fear-invoking. I guess the best way to describe it would be a death growl with the raspy, whispering sound of a black metal vocalist. Sometimes, however, during chants, there is a normal voice that sounds like fake shouting, and it sounds terrible. Imagine, while recording all the chants for your band, a drunken fan who slipped unnoticed into the studio jumps next to you and starts yelling the lyrics into the microphone while swaying side from side about to pass out. That is the best way to describe it. After the slam with the chants, the song picks up its original tone and basically repeats what it did for the first three minutes, before the solo.

The next song is "Sacrifice Unto Sebek". This is a good song, but it starts off weak. It's three minutes long, but it spends half a minute of that time repeating a slow, boring riff, and another half minute on a slow, boring outro. Perhaps on one of the two nine-minute epics present on this album, that would have worked, but on this track, the slowest song to incorporate the entire band's music, just no. Also, the vocals don't have the flow and groove that produced an epic like "Cast Down The Heretic". Around 0:58, we get a riff where the vocals are the main focus, and they're quite catchy. This place, right here in the album, was where I realized that this band's main asset was their vocalist's place in the song. Not the blistering instruments, not the lyrical themes, and not the atmosphere the band creates, but the rhythmic headbanging the vocals inspire. Anyway, around 1:30 in this song we reach a primarily guitar-centered riff, and this is the place where the guitars really shined for me. Although it's a really modest riff, the atmosphere it creates is quite vibrant. The rest of the song is just xeroxed material from the first half, and thus nothing else is of notice.

I'll get to the drums at this point in my review. George Kollias is just...wow. He's probably up there on my list of drummers with Behemoth's Inferno and Meshuggah's Tomas Haake. Although I think Inferno's fills are the best out of the three and Tomas is the most technical, George is definitely the fastest of the three. That's not to say that he's not technical; on the next track, "User ~ Maat ~ Re", he is the main focus of the starting beat, which isn't surprising, considering right about here he's hitting every goddamn drum on the kit. But yes, most of the time he's either blasting the snare and cymbal into nonexistence, or streaming away on the bass pedals until they threaten to explode.

The song "User ~ Maat ~ Re" is ridiculously long (9 minutes 15 seconds to be approximate) slow. It doesn't have much of true notice, except for the guitar riff it has going for it for the last three minutes is pretty cool. Oh, and the instrumental at the beginning is of notice. It's played on the...um...the same instrument on the first track. I'm getting increasingly tired as I write this, and I can't think of the name of it. but you get the point. Basically, this song doesn't have much that makes it particularly enjoyable, especially due to the fact you have through 6 minutes of boring shit to get to the only decent part in the song. The next track is one of my favorites, though: "The Burning Pits of the Duat". The guitar is decent at first, but later it slows down a little bit and focuses a little bit more on rhythm and tone compared to pure technicality. Once again, we have the catchy vocals that give this band its edge over most tech-death bands out there. The end of the song (the last 12 seconds) is one of the catchiest things you'll ever hear in the world of death metal. It literally makes you want to dance.

The next song is... *takes deep breath* "Chapter of Obeisance Before Giving Breath to the Inert One in the Presence of the Crescent Shaped Horns"...well then. Actually, I never paid much attention to this song before, but upon its review, I quite like it. It's got a much darker tone than the bulk of the other songs, and is probably where the guitar reaches its biggest possible potential, drawing a fine line between wankery and tremolo goodness. I'll choose the latter, because I like the guitar in this song. Around the 3:00 mark, the song slows down to a riff resembling a slam. The guitar actually sounds extraterrestrial at this point, but I don't believe it's what they were aiming for. I haven't read the lyrics to this song, but I'm pretty sure Egypt being invaded by aliens would be stretching things a bit. Next, we meet face to face with my favorite song on this album, "Lashed to the Slave Stick". The beginning of this song is almost entirely tremolo with the guitars, and the main riff is a simple sweep that's repeated once a measure, and then another tremolo. It sounds simple, but it's really quite addicting. The vocals are probably the catchiest on this song, especially in the chorus. Unexpectedly, the song changes tempo at 2:15, and it's a change for the better. The tempo change is gone in thirty seconds, and the song slows down, finally picking the original tremolo to settle down on and spin its subtle web of enticement. Ironically, the drums are a bit weak on this particular song, but regardless this is still my favorite song on this album.

The next song ("Spawn of Uamenti") is more ambient than instrumental. It seems almost like "easy listening" or "something to listen to when you want something in your ears, but not actual music". Until I can come up with some other possible use for this song's existence, those are my theories. Onto the eight-minute title track. I constantly hear this song hyped, and it seems among Nile fans this is unanimously the "most totally brutal" song they ever created. The song is admittedly great, and it evokes an extremely large atmosphere, but other than better-than-average guitar work, I see nothing that is of extreme commendation. We have the slow songs on this album. (Hell, the next and last song on this album does it better.) We have the great guitar work. (Please refer to the second track on this album.) As a result, this song is just plain redundant. Recycled material. What's even sadder is that this is the title track. When your title track is the weakest thing on your album, there is a big problem. But hey, remember: if this song ever starts to suck to you, just say the words "wake up, wake up, wake up" in a Suicide Silence fashion and this will become the greatest song you've ever heard.

And here we come to the final track, "Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten". Like a few other Nile songs, this one takes inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft's stories. I love this song. Even taking it for face value, it's just astounding. You know you've done something right when your main riff composes of a total of SEVEN notes (yes, that's 7, the number between 6 and 8) and it's still addicting as crack cocaine. Later, the song comes to another tremolo, slows down, and takes on a variation of the main riff. The vocals have less of an impact on this song compared to the others, but that isn't to say that removing them wouldn't cause the tower to fall over. At 4 minutes in, the guitars fade to the back and what sounds like a hypnotized, possessed chorus chimes in. At 5 minutes, we get a guitar solo. Remember how I feel about guitar solos? Yeah...this one ain't much better in my book. It stops a minute later, and starts and stops streaming beats continuously while Karl Sanders seems to be performing spoken word with the slight added gruffness of a growl. A slow, repeated riff coalesced with death growls herald the album out as subtly as it came in. Thus ends this gem of an album.

This is not, by all, or even any means, a jaw-dropping, innovative, or ground-breaking album. However, it is a good album. At least one of the songs on it will become one of your personal favorites, and if you ever had doubts about the decency of technical death metal as a genre, this album will purify your thoughts and open your mind. All in all, I would recommend this album to any death metal fan. Hell, even a thrash metal fan would appreciate this. Go out and buy it; I doubt you'll be disappointed.

I'm beginning to think that the difference between good Nile albums and terrible ones is simply a matter of production, because it's difficult for me to articulate precisely why 'Annihilation Of The Wicked' is pretty good and 'In Their Darkened Shrines' is a barbed wire nipple in the mouth when musically they're essentially the same. The biggest difference between the two is the production: the full, clear and loud sound on this album is a thousandfold improvement over the Hate Eternal-style mud of the previous. Aside from this, the albums are the same general idea with only a few slight musical differences; then again, maybe those minor differences make this more than the sum of its parts.

The most obvious thing that I can see about this beyond the production is that it doesn't have nearly as much lame ambient stuff as the previous release, and what's there usually takes the form of clean guitar sections that are relatively listenable rather than awful synthesized drones. The synths in general seem to have been dropped back a bit, even in the token 'epic' tracks (meaning over seven minutes long), and are no longer a cheesy and omnipresent vulture just waiting for the right opportunity to queer things up. Not to say this doesn't have its dose of cheese: plenty of the melodies still sound like they should be coming from some 1950's film strip about the excavation of King Tut from this prismatic grave.

The riffs are Nile riffs and very similar to those found on 'In Their Darkened Shrines', but if I'm not mistaken, they're ever so slightly more melodic and lucid and less frequently devolve into a series of seemingly random notes. The guitarwork is just as masturbatory as its always been, but with the new production, it's like Sanders is masturbating right in front of you, and I guess seeing his mighty arpeggiated shaft directly is better than awkwardly straining to hear his self-abuse through a wall. A slightly toned down drum performance is also part of the success of the album; when everything isn't laden with self-indulgent and pointless fills, the drums are able to give the songs the necessary momentum required to actually, you know, get somewhere.

Oh yeah, the songs, I knew I was forgetting something. They're good; they're more restrained in their attempts and progressive songwriting and seem more firmly rooted in death metal than before, resulting in a lot of relatively brief, intense, and riffy numbers like 'Cast Down The Heretic', 'Sacrifice Unto Sebek', or 'Lashed To The Slave Stick'. Unsurprisingly, Nile is best when they're working within their means instead of hitching their wagon to distant Egyptian stars, and so the shorter the track is, the better it generally comes across. These tracks are appropriately technical and brutal, but moreover can create some actual headbanging, something that Nile at this point had been unable to do for two albums previous.

Of course there are a couple moments where Nile decides to go off the deep end and attempt one of their generally cringe-inducing epics, but surprisingly, the longer tracks on this album are actually listenable and occasionally verge on genuinely good. Far from the hopelessly bloated and embarrassing songs of the past like 'Unas, Slayer Of The Gods', the epics on 'Annihilation Of The Wicked' have a good sense of pacing and manage to maintain listener interest despite how Nile has been playing the same music for four albums now. These songs aren't nearly as good as the shorter ones, but they're an admirable attempt, which is more than you can generally say for these guys.

As almost a complete 180 in quality from the previous LP, this album is a genuinely worthwhile slab of tech death for those who enjoy the genre. The compositions are tight and clear and the improved production works wonders for making this listenable. As loathe as I am to admit enjoying Nile's music, I have to say that this gets regular spins from me.

This is often hailed as Nile's peak. I've only heard three of their albums and I would have to choose which one pisses me off the least. The name of the frontman, Karl Sanders, reminds me of Colonel Sanders. And this music reminds me of Colonel Sanders entering an all beef cookoff with a bucket of fried chicken. Colonel Karl approaches the judge's table with his savory bucket of delicious goodness. What a surprise! The other judges look pleased. I mean, they've been eating steaks all day, right? I, however, am scowling.

"WHERE IS THE MOTHERFUCKING BEEF, KARL??"

Where are the awesome riffs? You get tons of boring ones in a thin guitar tone with monotonous and mechanical drumming that doesn't fit at all. Sure, these guys are highly skilled but since when does that count for anything in music? Never (in my book that is). If I found out that this asshole changed his first name to begin with the letter K, I'd dock this album's score just because I'm an irrational prick. Yes, I'm sure it's just a stage name or whatever but we may have to do something about South Carolina if we indeed have chucklefucks there naming kids Karl.

The theme of Annihilation of the Wicked centers around ancient Egypt. That would be cool if it boiled down to more than a few small synth parts and the prolific use of the snake charmer scale (Phrygian dominant if that means anything to you). The vocals are acceptable and decently varied but verge on that awful "inhaled sound" a lot. Pretty indecipherable most of the time, which is unfortunate because lyrics about ancient Egypt are interesting.

Are there supposed to be a bunch of exotic instruments here? Perhaps I missed them entirely because of the stupor induced by listening to this. There's a short intro track and one small interlude track that fails to do anything other than puzzle me. The folk instrument on the intro manages to give off a strong Egyptian vibe so that's a small plus. The other one is pointless (Spawn of Uamenti, track eight). It's like they were racking their brains trying to figure out some way to break up this monotone slab of Valium and couldn't figure out anything better than filling up 74 seconds with random noises and slow tribal drums.

The biggest problem with this album (and Nile's music in general) is that the songs rarely go anywhere. I keep waiting for some awesome part to come hit me and it never happens. Three songs stretch past the eight minute mark as well, which is a recipe for disaster. There are some occasional good bits, but they only frustrate me because I keep expecting THE REALLY GOOD BITS and they never come. What I wanted was a juicy burger and what I got was a two day old chicken sandwich. Oh...okay. What's this? Waiter! I ordered exciting death metal and you brought me sleepy randomness with extra gimmick. I'm hungry now.

Annihilation of the Wicked sees Nile bringing their style of wrathful death metal to the next level of power and command. They have at once mastered a genre (even removing the Middle Eastern influences their songs are as brutal, fast, and technical as anything on the market) and brought their own unique flavour to it that is surprisingly becoming more interesting with each release. This may because of the depth of involvement Sanders puts into his lyrics and subject matter. Oppositely to other “themed” bands which focus on limited subjects such as gore and violence, Nile has an entire cultural library of folklore and history from which to draw on. Reading the lyrics makes me feel like I’ve learned something by listening to Nile; they add an aura of wisdom and mystique to the band that surpasses the usual purely-brutal qualities of death metal.

Enlisting Neil Kernon as producer was a good idea. While the sound on this record isn’t 100% clear and flawless, it is much better than anything Nile has released before. There is also an extremely organic feel to the performances. This comes from Sanders actually playing much more of the Middle Eastern instruments in the intros and interludes rather than programming them. And then of course, there are the drums. First off, George Kollias is an insane drummer. He provides a performance that normal people could not achieve without the use of amphetamines. Kernon made a great production choice in not turning Kollias’ frantic blasts and fills into the computer generated-snorefest that can be heard on most death metal and death-core releases surfacing lately. There is audible physicality and variance in his snare and toms, and perceivable strain in pulling off some of the ridiculously difficult parts. For me this makes all the difference. I would much rather hear a drummer I can imagine watching live than wondering whether or not a beat was played or programmed. The only score I will knock off this album lies in the guitar tone, as the multiple overdubs of low-tuned strings (I believe Nile tunes down to A!) creates a din which can cause a headache at high volumes. I'm sure this could have been corrected in mastering, or in pre-production when choosing a tone the guys could have rolled off the lows a little. This would also have left some room for the bass to be more of creative contribution and not just a sound-booster.

As mentioned earlier, Nile is at the top of death metal. The tracks on Annihilation of the Wicked all stand out as individuals as opposed to many death metal releases which feature a mess of indistinguishable songs. I do believe however that there is potential to go ever further into experimentation. Anyone who has heard Karl Sanders’ Saurian Meditation album knows that the Egyptian theme harbours more possibility than godly war anthems. Nile could easily inject their music with more vocal variance and acoustic and Middle Eastern instruments within songs as opposed to only being used in intros. However, you can’t grade an album on what you hope the next one will be, and I find little punishable fault in this one.

Annihilating the Wicked, part 2: 99%
Okay, so here’s the deal. My previous review of this album sucked. I admit it. So, here’s a rewrite of it; which I hope is more informing than my previous one. You’ll find some things have changed (oh dear, I sound like I’m some envied writer who earns one hundred dollars per book sold), especially the grade I gave it; from a 9,7 to a 9,9. Yadiyadiyada, nothing special really.

But anyways, let me start off with a compliment to Karl and Dallas. You guys are two of the most talented guitar players I’ve ever heard (together with Muhammed Suicimez from Necrophagist – worth checking out if you like Nile!). From the starting riff of “Cast Down The Heretic” to the ending solo / riff of “User-Maat-Re” to the fadeout of “Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten”, it all sounds like one big, intense rollercoaster ride that lasts for nearly a full hour (about fifty minutes, to be exact) and keeps being utterly relentless. No weak spots, anywhere. Some of the best headbanging riffs I’ve ever heard (*cough*Annihilation of the Wicked*cough*User-Maat-Re*cough).

To this all is added the amazing drumming of George Kollias. This man is probably one of the fastest drummers in the scene, and probably one of the most technical too. His drumming flawlessly keeps in perfect pace with all the riffs that are played anywhere – I haven’t heard ONE off-beat note from anything ranging from his snare to his left high-pitched, nearly-unreachable hi-hat (or something).

The vocals. Wow. Karl and Dallas together deliver some of the lowest, fastest and varied grunts ever. They sound like Ra himself, would he ever speak unto this world. Just incredible.
Take, for example, “Chapter of Obeisance” (I won’t type out the whole song name – it’d be longer than this review). Second line: “Who Possesseth Absolute Dominion over the Evil Spirits that Infest the Earth and Sky”. This line is brought to us (by Dallas) within 4 seconds.
Another example (this time of epic vocals): “Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten”. With the first “lyrical paragraph”, Karl grunts some of the lowest grunts I’ve ever heard in my life! “Kulten” is the most epic (and longest, beating “User-Maat-Re” by about 30 seconds) Death Metal song from Nile, ever. Yes, in my opinion this even beats “To Dream Of Ur” and “Unas Slayer of the Gods”.

Lyrically, this album once again follows Egyptian mythology, methods of torture and Lovecraftian stories (actually just one really – “Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten” is a fictional book thought up by friends of Lovecraft and used within the Lovecraftian universe. More on this is written in the notes for the song by Karl). Nothing too new (however a concept that only Nile has yet touched – Egyptian mythology that is – and, probably, only Nile is capable of doing), regarding their previous three full-lengths (which be “Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka”, “Black Seeds Of Vengeance” and “In Their Darkened Shrines”, respectively). In any case, the lyrics are very well-written.

The production is very good, however some criticism applies here. I can NOT, but once, hear the bass guitar anywhere on this album. The only case is on “… Kulten”, just before the part where Karl starts bellowing his lines. I haven’t got much to say on this, I’m not an expert, and it sounds very well-blended and mixed to me – nothing is overpowered, the vocals are easily distinguishable (in the sense of being able to hear them, not make out the text).

Have I got anything else to say? Ah yes, I do. Why I give this a 9,9, not an 8 or something. Well, this is because it’s just plainly a perfect album. Perfect I say? Then why not a 10? Because no thing ever will get a 10 from me, but Pain of Salvation’s BE (sure, call me a pussy – so what?).
To be very honest, I haven’t really got a great reason why I gave this a 9,9. I only know that it deserves it.

People who like Nile, people who like Death Metal, get this. It’s awesome. It’s better than “ITDS” and “BSOV”. It’s better than anything. It’s …. Annihilation of the Wicked!

Stand-out tracks: “Cast Down The Heretic”, “User-Maat-Re”, “Burning Pits of the Duat”, “Annihilation of the Wicked” and “Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten”. Or, actually: All of them!

This is my first Nile album. Keep that in mind as you read my review, because I can't possibly recognize the "been-there, done-that" qualities of this album. I haven't heard any of their other material so I can't judge that. What I can judge is what I think of the album completely unbiased. I've come out with some pretty good thoughts on it, however, this is a rather repetitive display of brutality.

The album opens up with a short Egyptian-styled song, just some light acoustic work or whatever the hell the instrument is. That blasts into "Cast Down the Heretic", oen of my favorites on the album. It's mind-blowingly fast and brutal and has somewhere around 3 minutes of soloing in there. First sign of repetition, but that's ok, because the solos are sick. Near the end they slow it down for yells of "CAAAAAST! DOOOOOWN! THE! HEEREETIIIIIIIIIC!" which is the epitome of awesome. I also like how the vocals are fast on this album, almost working as another instrument. It works damn well.

Sacrifice unto Sebek is short but sweet. It has the same thing as Cast Down the Heretic, sweet brutality and sweet riffs with a really cool slow-down and Egyptian sounds scattered throughout. The solo in this one is truly sweet. User Maat Re starts out with some light acoustic or once again, whatever the hell that instrument is. Then it blasts into one of the sweetest portions of the album...which only lasts for about twenty seconds. Then the song follows it's course of speed and brutality for awhile, until 4:12, where a slightly creepy guitar part comes in, leads into a devastatingly crushing part. Up to this point, the drummer had been near perfect, but here, he's a bit excessive. Damn...his feet are fast though. The song then chuggs along fairly repetitively until the end.

The Burning Pits of Duat has a sweet opening riff, but besides that, nothing stands out. Consider it a less cool version of Cast Down the Heretic. Same thing with the next song with a name way too long for me to say. The long-name song which will just call Chapter does have some considerably cooler parts though is more well-execute than Burning Pits. Good song. Next is Lashed to the Slave Stick, probably the most different song on the whole album. Sure it's brutal and the vocals are heavy as hell as usual, but instead of the usual blastbeats with crazy fast riffs followed by a slow-downed badass part followed by more blastbeats with crazy speed and fast vocals, we get...a mid-tempoed song that almost seems like a Morbid Angel song. Riffs are strong and fairly repetitive, drumming is more straight double bass...it's very straight-forward death metal.

Spawn of Uamenti is a short interlude that serves no real purpose but to break up the action. The title track starts excellently, with some quick brutality, then a slow part with only a guitar melody...and they build off that very very well. It works well. Then the riffs after are in the same fashion as the rest album, but are more catchy and well-put together. Then...the song falls back into the standard songwriting style.

The last song is a good one...it combines a lot of more ominous sound effects, has really cool lyrics, more awesome riffs on par with Cast Down the Heretic, and the songwriting is mixed up a little bit more than the other songs. This song is worth it, definitely.

Overall, if you've heard Cast Down the Heretic and Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten, you've pretty much heard everything this album hast to offer. Those two offerings are strong enough to warrant a purchase, just don't expect anything mindblowing. It's great fun and awesome to listen to occassionally, but it's too repetitive to truly stand out.

Highlights: Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten, Cast Down the Heretic, Sacrifice unto Sebek

After living with this CD for several months I have to say to myself: “This is great, but haven’t I heard this before?”, and I am unhappy to feel that way about one of the few American death metal bands worth my time. Nile are still head and shoulders above most of the USDM hordes, don’t get me wrong, but there is a pronounced “Been there done that,” feel to this album.

We still have lengthy Egyptian-influenced song titles and meticulously-researched lyrical matter as only Karl Sanders can deliver, and still have insanely fast drum work (courtesy of new recruit George Kollias) driving numerous riffs flying by at roughly light speed. We still have Egyptian/Middle Eastern-sounding scales being utilized to lethal effect, and both Karl and Dallas have progressed into the realm of godliness occupied by the likes of Yngwie Malmsteen in his prime. And of course those ultra-evil demonic grunts and growls that cannot possibly be coming from human throats that require the lyric sheet as always to decipher (though Dallas sounds far more coherent this time around). Yes, the elements are all there for greatness, yet somehow…the feeling is not quite there.

After an eerie Turkish baglama saz intro piece we are assaulted by the overwhelming rush of “Cast Down The Heretic”, spearheaded by Kollias’ devastating blasting—this man has got to be a cyborg or something. But he is more in the background than I’d like to hear him—Karl has mentioned that they felt the guitars were buried underneath the drums on “In Their Darkened Shrines” and I think this is them overcompensating for that. That aside, wow…this song will tear your head off every time. The lengthy tradeoff solo section is dazzling in its unbridled virtuosity, with sweep picking and breathtaking runs all over the fretboard left and right. The chant of the title is very typical Nile near the end, their customary crowd-pleasing sing-along. The following are some other highlights of the CD.

“Sacrifice Unto Sebek” is much shorter than “Cast Down…” and not as sweet as it is vicious and head-crushing. We have here a concise death metal blast about sacrificing to the crocodile god of the underworld with a crazed whammy bar break that ends as suddenly as it starts, and it reminds me of a military surgical strike—in and out before the enemy knows what hits them. How can you not like a song about feeding people to Nile crocodiles?

“User-Maat-Re” is a doom-laden epic that trudges along on a deliberate path of merciless and unrelenting destruction. It well conveys the despairing feeling of a man trying to live up to his father’s impossible legacy and failing in his own mind no matter how well he does with its dark and menacing riffs and dynamics. The vocals at the end are almost totally incoherent they are so deep and distorted. “User-Maat-Re, thou hast done NOTHING!”

“The Burning Pits of the Du’at” is described by Karl in the liner notes as the song he feared would end his career, and it is obvious as to why that is from the first listen to this song. It is fiendishly faster (if you can imagine that) than usual, and maintains that furious pace virtually from start to finish with choppy riffs galore. If it were any other band this would be boring, but Nile make it work with their usual creative arrangements of riffs, riffs that Karl says hurt him terribly at first to play consistently at that tempo. And some nasty lyrical images of what people could expect when in the Du’at (the Egyptian underworld, equivalent to the Greek Hades and Norse Hel) make this shudder-worthy too.

“Lashed to the Slave Stick” is as close to a straightforward thrash metal tune that I’ve yet heard from Nile, but features catchy riffs and a relatively memorable arrangement. What, Nile, memorable, you ask? It has happened in this tune—no blast beats in sight and a more approachable tempo that cruises along very smoothly. The swirling screams of pain at the ending of this track are hair-raising, too.

“Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten” is a creepy album closer with a lyrical theme heavily inspired by the late, great Robert E. Howard’s fantasy writings about the snake-men of the Atlantean age who strove to destroy the race of man. It has an appropriately menacing and dark feel to it and climaxes with a hair-raising, screaming vocal near the end by Dallas about how he awaits the day when the children of the snake will rise again to destroy all that man has wrought, and you feel he means it.

Neil Kernon’s production is usually excellent, but the guitars dominate most everything on this CD—the bass is, as usual, drowned out and the drums are further in the background than usual on an album of this sort, as mentioned before. The vocals are actually just beneath the guitars, which is surprising--NIle's vocals are usually pretty prominent. I could’ve done with a more balanced mix, myself, but Neil got paid so this is what we got. I don’t expect to hear the bass on death metal albums, but the drums are just as important as the guitars in the grand scheme of things in music this extreme. Even when they’re obviously triggered as is standard operating procedure, you have to be able to hear them, which is not the case here. And with a player as incredible as George Kollias obviously is, this is a disservice to him.

In short, Nile need to reevaluate where they are going from here on out, because while they are still at the head of the pack, there are others who are eager to overtake them. Not too many, but they are there, and something needs to be done before Nile descend into a parody of what they once were. And I would hate to see that happen.

I've tended to stay away from Death Metal for a few reasons, that being the vocals, the gore-obsessed lyrics (They don't offend me, but they do bore me) and the lack of invention in this genre. But having read about Nile, and their unique lyrical themes, I decided to give them a go, and I'm very glad I did.

The riffs in this album are amazing. They are generally just super fast and insane, however, Sanders and Toller-Wade do slow down once in a while, to great effect. Normally though, these two amazing guitarists are blasting through insane harmonic minor/dimished scale runs, or chugging through blistering low tuned riffs. There's plenty of variety in the fast riffs, which is a good thing, as too many DM riffs are just "Look how fast I can tremelo pick!" style riffs. There's the occaisonal acoustic bit too, which are all very tastefully put in. Nothing worse then a band overloading on Acoustic bits.

The riffs are backed up by some really good, clean fast drumming. The drummer is great, and while he is capable of some stupidly fast beats and fills, he also knows when to slow down, which is a very good thing. The vocals are the final thing to add to this cacophony. (the bass is there, but it's in a background role, for the most part just doubling the guitars) They are the generic death metal vocals unfortunately, but they are pretty fierce, and the 3 vocalists are used to great effect, creating a frightening blast of different voices all at once.

WHile normally I don't mention lyrics, they are extremely good in this band, so I'll mention. As I'm sure you know, these lyrics are all Egyptian themed, and all extremely well written. They use the whole Old Style of language, lots of Thees thous and haths, and it works really well. Sanders is kind enough to put detailed liner notes in the booklet, which really help explain the lyrics, and which are quite interesting reading by themselves too.

So, in conclusion, i'd like to point out something. I'm not a death metal expert, so what sounds insane to me might just sound old and boring to you. Regardless though, I think this is a great and highly varied DM album, full of cool riffs, amazing drumming and interesting lyrics. HIghly essential death metal.

Nile. If you’re into death metal, then you know that band. They revitalized the scene in 1998 with the brutal and blackened masterpiece of Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka, an absolutely essential album. If you do not happen to own it, go buy it, now, and come back to read this review later.

Dum de de dum.

Back? Good, now I can continue. Y’see, it’s rather hard to properly follow up an album like Nephren-Ka. Some bands manage, some bands don’t. After stumbling slightly (only slightly) with the follow-up, Black Seeds of Vengeance, they reoriented themselves and focused their Egyptian-tainted death metal attack to bring us their second best album, In Their Darkened Shrines, home to the four-part story-driven epic piece, In Their Darkened Shrines, and the brilliant Unas Slayer of the Gods. Surely, this was their creative peak, as they combined even more complex Egyptian instrumentation and more obscure Egyptian mythology with über-brutal Suffocation-style death metal.

It seems that In Their Darkened Shrines was indeed their creative peak, because Annihilation of the Wicked, while by no means a terrible album, falls FAR short of the incredible standards set by Nile’s pedigree.

The production is flat and lifeless, a lot like the production on Black Seeds of Vengeance, but with more focus on the guitars than that album had, luckily. The drums are way back in the mix, but you can still hear them pretty well.

The songwriting has degenerated massively. You can really predict everything if you’ve listened to enough Nile. The intro is an… c’mon… you guessed it, Egyptian instrumental. Then they blast out of the gate with my favorite song on the album, Cast Down the Heretic. It’s got brutality, frantic energy, good performances from all three vocalists, and a stellar performance from the new drummer, who kicks ass, but so do about three thousand other death metal drummers.

Next song, Sacrifice unto Sebek. Hmm, slower intro, cut into more blasting, more complex riffing, more growls. Cool break around 2:20, I think that’s about it, supported by… yes indeedy, keyboards playing a small set of notes extended to make them sound dramatic. First ‘epic’ song of the album shows up now. Let’s see. The general construction of the first riffset is stolen completely off of Unas Slayer of the Gods, as are the drum fills. Yadda yadda, abuse of hi-hat and cymbals, slower double-bassing, riffs timed with growls from either Sanders or the bassist. Oh whee.

This reveals the big flaw of the album: You’ve heard all of this before. You’ve heard the ‘epic’songs in In Their Darkened Shrines, the riffing in countless other records, the no-longer-innovative combination of Egyptian instrumentals with death metal blasting… this wasn’t a problem before In Their Darkened Shrines, because they hadn’t any real epic songs at that point, but now they’ve run out of things to do with death metal.

Admittedly, death metal itself is largely filled with crocks of boring, regressive shit (Origin for one), but the best death metal bands know that this doesn’t matter and write killer songs, and great riffs to make us forget about it. However, Nile was seen as an INNOVATOR on the scene back when they arrived, like I noted, and have now stagnated. Those who say things like 'Of course Nile didn't change! Would you want Slayer to change?' are missing the point- Nile have carved out their little niche of innovation and are refusing to take anything further. It's stupid.

Despite their utter lack of progression, they can still write a couple good tunes, like Cast Down the Heretic, Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten, and The Burning Pits of the Duat.

Final Note: Some of these song titles are bordering on parody. Some person with much time to waste should program a Nile song title generator, if one doesn't already exist.

(originally written by myself for metalreviews.com)

So, its finally here. Nile has almost tortured the the fans for having to wait 3 fucking years. After In their darkened shrines, everyone wanted more Nile. ITDS was for many the album of the year, with super technical songs like Execration text and long epics like Unas, slayer of the gods. Some said that album would be impossible to top. But those peolple were wrong.

The album starts off with a spooky sounding instrumental "Dusk falls upon the temple of the serpent on the mount of sunrise". This is a cool acustic guitar song, reminds me a lot of some off the stuff off Karl Sanders`s Saurian meditation solo album. There isn`t really much more to say about this song, other than it fits as an intro and leaves you totally unprepeared for what to come........

Boom! Cast down the heretic starts blasting with insane speed! This song really shows why George Kollias got the job as the new Nile drummer. The guy is a fucking rocket, probably even faster than Tony! The vocals are almost none stop through the whole song with all three vocalist ( Karl, Dallas and Jon) trading lines all the time. Great! Every Nile fan is shure to be satisfied with this song, hell, the song even has a 3 minute long solo! Probably the best solo ever done by Nile!

Next is Sacrifice unto Sebek. Holy shit this thing is fast! Did i say that "Cast" showed why George is the new Nile drummer? Well this song is an even better example. And that riff at around 2:00! Now that`s a riff! This song is fast but short, it only lasts for 3 minutes.

Now its time for User maat re. Those peolpe who wanted another Epic like Unas can now start celebrating. This song has it all, an acustic intro, ultra cool riffing and drumming, crushing vocals, and an amazing solo, and last but not least, it last around 9 minutes. But do not fear, it`s not a copy of Unas, not at all, it`s just that it got all the things that made Unas so great. Lyricaly, its about the Pharao Rames ||. The whole song is about all the great deeds he have done for his empire, trying to fill his father`s shoes. But in the end, he always hears his fathers voice inside his head telling him " Thou hast done nothing".

And along comes The burning pits of Duat. Execration Text part 2? Not really, but it`s just as good and technical. In the booklet, Karl writes that this song was almost impossible to nail perfectly and that he for a short time was fearing it would end his career, as his wrist was hurting while playing it. But they nailed it at last, which i am eternally happy for, as it is one of the best and fastest songs on the record.

Then comes Chapter of obeisance........ In my opinion, this is the least fantastic songs on the record (not cunting the instrumentals.) I can`t really tell why as it has got everything a good Nile song needs except something Egypt inspired riff, but that shouldn`t be holding it back, as there is plenty of other great less Egyptic Nile. Maybe this one will grow on me the more i listen to it.

Next up is Lashed to the slavestick. This is a little more straight forward Death metal track, at least compared to other Nile songs. Unfortunatly, no solo on this one. This song was published as a promo track at the Relapse site before the album came out. Some people freaked, thinking Nile had turned into Deeds of flesh. I will have to disagree, as the track is not even close to being Deeds of flesh. Just more straight forward ( I am not saying Deeds of flesh suck). Great song anyway.

Suddenly, it says boom! and Lashed is over and goes into Spawn of Uamenti. This is just an short instrumental with some spooky sounds of reptiles. I am not really shure if fits as an outro to Lashed, but it builds up a nice atmosphere for next song.....

And finally we are at the tittel track. This one starts off much like "Cast", but suddenly fades into a nice little lead part. The lead continius as the second guitar and drums joins in at 00: 48. This is just so fucking nice to listen to, definitly my favorite part of the whole album! Overall, it is not only that part that is my favorite, it`s the whole song in general. George shows yet again what an amazing drummer he is with insane dobbel bass and lots of tempo changes. And at the end of the song, the fantastic riff returns.......Flawless song!

But it`s not over yet. There is still one more epic left, lasting almost ten minutes. The songs name is Von Unnassprechlichen Kulten, which is German, and translates into "Of the unspeakalbe cults". The song is the slowest on the album, and shows an incredible vocal performance by Dallas, especally after the solo. A great song to finish off the album of the year.

Well well well… this one’s been a long time coming. 3 years and yet another drummer change after In Their Darkened Shrines, Nile has once again unleashed some seriously punishing death metal upon us. Overrated? Maybe. Good? Fuck yes.

As usual, there are a few hints of so-called “Egyptian” music here, which is really just some middle-eastern influence, since no one really knows what any music made by the ancient Egyptians would have sounded like. This time though, they’re less prominent, so it seems Nile have finally realized that they’re much better when they simply go about the business of making epic death metal.

As ever with this type of metal, the quality of drumming is always a prominent issue, and obviously a new drummer means quite a lot. So, does this George Kollias guy live up to the standard set down by his predecessors? Well, to put it blunty, yes. This guy can pump out the double-kick with the best of them, as well as slowing down to deliver some serious heaviness, and best of all, he’s not hampered by the annoying washed-out kickdrum sound which sometimes plagued ITDS.

It also seems the band have decided to veer away from short, pointless songs. There’s 10 tracks here, two of which are short interludes, and the other 8 being almost universally long and developed. “Sacrifice Unto Sebek”, “The Burning Pits Of The Duat” and “Lashed To The Slave Stick” fill the quota for shorter tracks, while the rest stretch out to rival previous epics like “To Dream of Ur” and “Unas, Slayer of the Gods”. In particular, the last two tracks and “User-Maat-Re” are all around 9 minutes, yet somehow never become boring or overlong. The trick is that Nile focuses more on atmosphere than compact brutality – most death metal bands would induce terminal boredom if they tried to write a 9 minute song, but Nile always seems to pull it off. In fact, to reiterate my previous statement, they’re better off when they do this sort of thing. Overall, Annihilation Of The Wicked is their strongest album since Amongst The Catacombs… and even surpasses that album by integrating the epic structures incorporated on the two intervening albums (or maybe just re-introduced from Festivals Of Atonement) and infusing them into the framework of hyperspeed chaos.

Of course, they couldn’t help coming up with some ridiculously long song titles too, which are just silly. But I’ll let them get away with it, yet again…

If you haven't heard any Nile, stop reading this review and do so now. Few bands have made me remember my mummified interest in death metal so poignantly as these South Carolina headbangers.
"Annihilation of the Wicked" is every bit as an awesome album as say "In Their Darkened Shrines" as it has all the grand hallmarks of a Nile landmark: take unnerving Egyptian-themed samples, manic drum pieces, and some of the best death guitaring in American death today, and lambast it with a slew of growls so deep you'll swear you are hearing the voices of the embalmed calling from beneath depths of fathomless, windblown sand. The egyptian-history/mythology lyrics are as interesting, unique, and oddly fitting as before, and none of this takes away from the music.
Take the title track: "Annihilation of the Wicked" spews forth some softer guitar messings before a full-blown set of face-tearing riffs spew forth with frantic double-bass and a wailing guitar lick that sounds like a lonely jackal howling mournfully beneath the desert stars. If a nine minute epic like this hasn't got you, nothing will! "The Burning Pits of The Duat" is hellish in its manic intensity, and the guitar harmonies a little into "Sacrifice Unto Sebek" had a friend and I laughing with unbridled joy at the swankness of it all. "Cast Down The Heretic" has a solo so long and utterly breath-taking it could be a mini-song of it's own, and the simply grandoise, slower-paced riffage on "Unser-Maat-Re" sounds a little like a Mastodon song lost on a desert crossing past the oasis.
All in all, Nile simply are one of the most entertaining bands to have a release this year so far. It might be I enjoy their death metal so much, or it might be they have built the death metal equivlent of the pyramids at Giza: trasncendental monuments of man, only able to by timeworn yet never destroyed. The obelisk of death metal called Nile, should they keep pumping out simply neuron-melting metal such as this, will cast a shadow over all acts for eternity, just as the pyramids do on the architects of today.

Wow, has it been a long time or what?! They left us with two amazing albums, and we were just begging for more! Well, three years of waiting and finally we have "Annihilation Of The Wicked". With this album you can notice a change right away from a first listen. One of the first things you're gonna notice is that Nile are more aggressive this time around (not that they weren't), but, I mean less instrumentals in their songs. Although some people liked those wicked egyptian instrumentals (like me), it seems that they wanted to reduce the number of those and supply more straight foward death metal, the Nile way. Like a previous review mentioned, Nile headed for the more "rawer" sound of their demo days, and it just seems perfect! Imagine any Nile album and take any song (not instrumental) and take away the egyptian parts, and make it a little more aggressive (like you can) , and you have these new songs. Not that it's a bad thing, not all, like any Nile song, they seem just a wall of sound at first, but once you get the hang of it, and inmerse yourself in the music, you can tell that each song is different, even if anyone says they sound the same. Even me, when I heard them for the first time, I didn't like them right away.

This is perfect for when you feel like banging your head, or for those times when you think you're a drummer (like me) and just wants to bang stuff fast and hard. The song titles still are quite long, but I don't care, I just feel sorry for Sanders when he's announcing the songs. "Lashed To The Slave Stick" is really a great song, if that's the first song you get to listen then you are really gonna get sucked in. "Cast Down The Heretic" is a great way to start the album after the intro, a nice way to bash that face in! The title track really surprised me, slowing down and just sounding heavy, nice fucking song. The last track, "Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten" also continues the slow trend of the previous track, but the drum pedals just seem non-stop. And lets not forget that fucking great solo near the end of the song! Another aspect I like about this album is that the drums sound different, a more crisp sound, really adding a more clear layer to the music and making it more heavy in my opinion.

Other tracks I've kept repeating: "The Burning Pits Of The Duat", "User-Maat-Re", oh Hell, I liked the whole album, I just pointed out my favorites. But seriously, Nile are back, so be fucking prepared!!

Nile is back and they haven't forgot the brutality that has made them death metal favourites over the course of their 12-year career. Nearly everything they've done has been accepted with open arms from the metal community because of the work that has been put into it. The band works hard and it shows through their music.

It has been three years since the release of 'In Their Darkened Shrines' and in that time Nile was busy touring and writing material. The album feels a lot like 'In Their Darkened Shrines' only with a lot more influence from their earlier, more raw work. The production is fantastic and has all parts of the band blended in well together with no one instrument above the others. The vocals of Karl Sanders shine throughout as he proves again why he is one of the best vocalists in death metal. Quick guitar, technical solos and pounding drums are again the mainstay of Nile. Although this time the band has gone for a more melodic, yet brutal sound.

The highlights of this album are without a doubt "Chapter Of Obeisance Before Giving Breath To The Inert One In The Presence Of The Crescent Shaped Horns" (try saying that in one breath), "Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten" and the title track. While their is no one standout epic such as "Unas" was on 'In Their Darkened Shrines', at least three of the tracks on this album try to imitate the same feel it had.

If you liked Nile before you will continue to appreciate their contributions to the metal world. If you didn't like Nile now is as good a time as any to try again, it doesn't get much better than this.

To tell the truth, I was really worried about this album. At first I didn't know what to expect, then they released the track "Lashed to the Slave Stick" on the internet to download. That put a bad taste in my mouth. It seemed very generic and boring sounding. The riffs were very groove oriented, and no longer frantic.

However, to my pleasant surprise, the rest of this album kicked my ass. It starts out with some little guitar piece, leaving the listener in suspense until the second track kicks in. And it sure does kick in, it'll kick your ass all over the place. Let's see, let's get our "Nile Checklist" out. Frantic? Yes. Brutal? Yes. Egyptian sounding? Yes. Low-fucking-vocals? You fucking bet.

After a couple tracks, we get into the first epic track of the album, which will smack you upside the head since it rules so much. Nile's new drummer George Kollias shines quite well on this release. His double kicking is exceptionally fast. However, I didn't notice a lot of blastbeats on the album. Not exactly a good thing, nor is it bad, but Nile's always had lots of great blastbeat sections in their songs, which might disappoint some. But god damn, some of the double kicking on this album is so fast it doesn't even matter.

Something I noticed about this album when compared to previous Nile releases is that the little Egyptian sounding interludes that Nile is known for don't seem as forced within the songs. They seem to be getting better over time with the flow of their albums. On "Black Seeds of Vengeance", although it was a fantastic album, the interludes seemed a bit random at times. Here they flow in a bit smoother, which definitely deserves props.

On the album, there's the odd weak riff here and there (aside from the previous mentioned track which sucked), but they are countered and destroyed with frantic fret board runs. Karl Sanders hasn't lost his signature touch.

The album closes of quite nicely with two more epic tracks, one being the title track. The album is very solid, and has satisfied me as a Nile fan and a death metal fan in general. They've shown they can evolve and progress with their unique style of brutal death metal. I’ve read that a lot of people were expecting an “In Their Darkened Shrines Part II”, which this is not, but it is rather just a solid release that is still very much in Nile’s vein. I think I'll try to get my hands on the special limited edition of the album, because I know it will be worth my cash.