Nile - What Should Not Be Unearthed (2015) (Japan GQCS-90026)

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Nile - What Should Not Be Unearthed (2015) (Japan GQCS-90026)

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One could argue that after four classic albums (Among the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka, Black Seeds of Vengeance, In Their Darkened Shrines, Annihilation of the Wicked), South Carolina’s Nile could be construed to be running in place for their following 3 albums, culminating in 2012’s At the Gates of Sethu. While unmistakably still a Nile album, production issues plagued the album, with critics (or maybe just me?) decrying the cleaner, pristine guitar tone, restrained vocals, overly technical songs. Some reviewers even seemed weary of the Egyptian theme. Well, say what you will about Karl Sanders and Co., because he appears to have taken the divisive response to Sethu to heart, and he and the band have responded with the band’s best album since Annihilation of the Wicked. Maybe it’s the throwback production to the crushing wall of noise of yore. Maybe it’s the addition of vocalist/bassist Brad Parris to the long running guitar/ vocal duo of Toler-Wade/Sanders. Either way, it’s invigorated the band, because this feels like the first four albums. From the heralding opening cry of the blistering and aptly named “Call to Destruction,” you can feel the power from the new production and material. Sanders has more involvement with his deeper roars, Wade has more snarl, the drums and guitars have a much denser, more commanding presence, and everything just seems far more virile and violent right out of the gate. And it’s not short lived either, as the second track “Negating the Abominable Coils of Apep” also erupts from the dunes with a commanding salvo we have come to expect from the band. It signals some of the album’s many slower, churning moments which I have always found to be the best part of Nile. And tracks like “Liber Stellae – Rubaeae,” the title track, the last few crumbling moments of “In the Name of Amun,” “Age of Famine,” and standout closer “To Walk Forth From Flames Unscathed” all have these ponderous, heaving moments in great, heaping, stone-dragging heft, with that low end “CHUN” that rattles your fillings. Granted, there are no 10-minute opuses like “Unas” or “To Dream of Ur,” but we’re getting quality, not quality right? And Sanders and Co are still masters of sweeping, tech vortices that can be just dropping at times, as the opening duo and ferocious “Rape of the Black Earth” display. Also of note: “Evil to Cast Out Evil” highlights the new dual guitar attack with a surprisingly epic, melodic lead solo, possibly a first for a Nile album. Naysayers will be pleased to hear that there is less Egyptian stuff going on as well. Less chants, less Middle Eastern instrumentation and atmospherics. And other than the minute and a half “Ushabti Reanimator,” there’s overall less fluff, shorter titles, and more ‘brain removed through your nose by a hook’ brutality, which is always a good time. Not that they ever went away, but Nile’s place atop US death metal’s pedestal seemed shaky the last few albums, but album number 8 doesn’t just up the ante, it smashes it. Nile has cast down the heretics once more to reclaim their place atop US death metal’s metaphorical death metal pyramid, thought Hate Eternal and their new release Infernus, might make it a little crowded up there.

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