Nile - What Should Not Be Unearthed

Nile albums are like Star Trek movies: they tend to alternate strong entries with weak ones. The South Carolina Egyptian death metal stalwarts' last effort, 2012's At the Gate of Sethu, was, for me at least, one of their weaker efforts, so I superstitiously raised my hopes for this one. Fortunately, it doesn't disappoint; while the album doesn't break any new ground, it does showcase the band at their most ferocious and energetic.

Nile have honed their brand of Egyptian-themed death metal to something like perfection over the years, combining Middle Eastern melodies with grinding, drop-tuned death metal riffage, with some folk instrumentation occasionally thrown in for flavor. It's not subtle, but it works, and the band is sure as hell good at it. However, specific as their sound is, the band always runs the risk of repeating themselves, as they do on some of their weaker releases. Here at least they manage to change it up just enough to keep things interesting; sure, there are certainly some paint by numbers tracks, such as 'Rape of the Black Earth', but I was never quite bored with it. The title track is also a bit on-the-nose for my liking, although it did manage to peak my interest with some eerie un-explainable little background noises (what ARE those?). Other than that, the band manages to change the pace a little bit with some doomy tracks ('Negating the Abominable Coils of Apep' and 'Age of Famine') as well as something like honest-to-god hooks (the chorus near the end of 'Call to Destruction' and that epic chant coalescing out of the chaos on 'In the Name of Amun'). I also have to give shout outs to 'Evil to Cast out Evil' for some insane thrashy riffing at the beginning. Overall, the band just sounds more energetic on this record than they have in a while, and the album ends on a high note with some screaming dual leads. The lyrics are the standard Nile fare of Egyptological name-dropping but it still leaves me somehow impressed; not many metal bands seem to put this much honest effort in to their lyrics, after all. I mean, I have to give high marks to any band that includes the line 'DEVOURED BY CROCODILES' in a song.

If Nile isn't your thing, it's not like this is gonna change your mind, but it's a solid release from one of the honest workhorses of the death metal scene.

Four abominable servants of the black god Set preparing to ascend in to the accursed after life out of five.