When you’ve been at something for 31 years it can be easy to settle into a groove. Whilst this is true for the new Nile album, they nonetheless manage to keep producing killer brutal death metal, albeit with very little new ground covered. From start to end The Underworld Awaits Us All is a quintessential Nile record. It’s got the choppy staccato riffing that’s become the calling card of Karl Sanders and co, the ultra-heavy drops, and the technical wizardry of George Kollias behind the drums.
There’s oodles of Middle Eastern inspired chords, and even one of those instrumental tracks that make it on to most of the albums past and present, in fact that’s so close to being blow for blow with the opening of “Dusk Falls Upon the Temple of the Serpent on the Mount of Sunrise,” that it will likely cause you to check the currently playing track. Of course none of this is to say it’s a bad record, it really isn’t and with Karl Sanders still firmly at the helm of the papyrus skiff, sailing down those long waters of the Nile it’d be remiss to say they could produce a ‘bad’ record.
“True Gods of the Desert” stands above most of the other tracks on the album as encapsulating everything Nile do well. The slow start eases in with it’s atmospheric scene setting before the main riff strikes like a well-placed Khopesh. Sanders vocals are still up to scratch after all these years, grinding along with the down-tuned guitars and feverish relentlessness of Kollias’ drumming. The elevated clean vocals add a touch of gravitas to proceedings. Towards the end of the track you’re treated to one of the nice fast-paced grindy riffs that pop up every now and again, it’s a well rounded track that has a little something for every type of death metalhead.
This is album number 10 for the Egypt / Lovecraft loving brutalists, and whilst it does show in the lack of new ideas, there is a level of consistency that just has to be appreciated with each album that is released. Nile are helped by the fact that they are killer live, you should take the opportunity to see them when they inevitably tour over here (they always do a good job of making semi-regular appearances in Europe) and it won’t be a disappointment. Just don’t expect any new fangled ideas when you put the album, expect Nile and you will not be disappointed.