Life has been…busy, to say the least.  I don’t have a lot of time.  What I do have, however, is this: my one adult beverage I can allow myself on a weeknight (a sazerac, if you must know), and a new Nile album.  I couldn’t let the release go without a little fanfare, so what you’re gonna get is a stream of consciousness, unfiltered, track-by-track reaction to the thing.  It’s called The Underworld Awaits Us All.  Let’s not waste any more time, shall we?

Track 1: “Stelae of Vultures“

How insane is George Kolias?  Obviously, Dallas leaving Nile way back in 2016 was a pretty big blow, but thank Ra George hasn’t moved on.  His drumming has been a standout feature of Nile since he joined twenty years ago.  And in that sense, this opening track…sounds like a Nile song.  It’s got everything you would naturally expect in it: inhuman drumming, a wild solo, fret-burning riffs and a trade off between the band’s four (!) vocalists this time around.  Which, if you haven’t been keeping up and are wondering how they’re getting on without Dallas, the answer is [Larry David voice] pretty pretty pretty good.

Track 2: “Chapter for Not Being Hung Upside Down on a Stake in the Underworld and Made to Eat Feces by the Four Apes“

We did not get one of these novel-length titles on Vile Nilotic Rites, so I’m very happy to see the tradition brought back.  And it’s their longest one ever?  I think?  Wow, this track is a burner.  I don’t know how George can physically do the non-stop blasting, but somehow he manages, and the vocals are the expected rapid-fire delivery that hallmarked the best era of the band (my particular favorite part is where they go “asdfgtbwmdqwqwkqwsdfckmwsfwiedcwed FECES” a lot).  This is so goddamn fun to listen to.  I don’t think they needed a “we’re so back” moment after Vile Nilotic Rites (I actually liked that album, sue me), but…we might be so back?

Track 3: “To Strike With Secret Fang”

Oh shit, harmonized guitars to start it off!  Am I getting a whiff of some blackened in this death metal?  And…wait, it’s over?  They were just cooking, and the track is really going to end right there?  Seems a little anticlimactic but what was there was cool, I guess.  It’s a missed opportunity to expand on something decidedly not-Nile, which I think they needed.  Ah well.

Track 4: “Naqada II: Enter the Golden Age“

Take me to the golden age, boys!  I’m starting to wonder if there are actually three guitar parts in each of these songs.  Karl has stood alone on guitar before, but I get that some backup is necessary, but if I didn’t have access to the promo, I wouldn’t necessarily know that Nile are a five-piece now.  I will say, this song highlights how tight the production is.  Even if you can’t tell how many guitars there are, I can hear the bass very clearly against them, and George’s drums are crisp without being overwhelming.  Okay, there’s a solo that definitely isn’t from Karl.  Hmmm.  Maybe I sit corrected over here.

Track 5: “The Pentagrammathion of Nephren-Ka“

Nephren-Ka, you say?  Like them there catacombs we were amongst?  And here’s where Karl gets to flex his Egyptology skills.  A nice, refreshing acoustic interlude is much needed after four tracks of non-stop punishment.

Track 6: “Overlords of the Black Earth”

Does every Nile album sound a little bit the same?  Sure.  Do I care?  Not so much.  There’s a time and a place for consistency, and these guys and Amon Amarth are two bands that I want to always rely on to release the same album on a regular basis.  This track has a lot more focus on melody and space, which is cool.  And now there’s the breakdown and it’s become *very* cool.

Track 7: “Under the Curse of the One God”

Man, I never get tired of these riffs.  This is 100% “I could never do that” music.  That, coupled with my childhood love of Ancient Egypt means this band really can’t do any wrong by me (please don’t take that as a challenge, Nile).  Oh shit, there’s another nasty breakdown.  You could write a doctoral dissertation on what Karl does with string bending.  I guess if you have scalloped frets on your guitar, you might as well use them!  Also, what is going on with this outro?  It’s like…b-roll background noise from a Ridley Scott movie.  Slightly unnecessary, as it doesn’t lead into the next song, which is…

Track 8: “Doctrine of the Last Things“

Good, this one is a little slower in pace.  I was hoping for that, variety being the spice of life and all.  There’s really good interplay between all the vocalists on this too, which is good.  If you can’t always tell there’s three guitarists, you can at least notice that there’s lots of vocals in this stew.  Man, Karl knows how to write groovy riffs as much as he knows how to write hyper-technical ones.  I’m assuming Karl wrote this; Brian or Zach, if I’m wrong, I’m very sorry.

Track 9: “True Gods of the Desert”

Smacks of “Sarcophagus” right off the bat.  Another crawling, slower paced romp, which is actually much appreciated.  I find myself involuntarily bobbing my head and making the scrunchy death metal face as this song plays.  You know the one.  It looks like this: >:[  Whoa, clean vocals???  What band am I listening to right now?  This is…interesting.  I once again find myself wishing they had leaned harder into it!  Stop being scared to take chances, fellas.

Track 10: “The Underworld Awaits Us All”

Okay, “Creeping Death” type riff to get things started.  And a nice little kiss of “User-Maat-Re” type ambience to keep things rolling.  Man, this album feels like it has a lot of callbacks.  Like I said, I don’t think there’s anything for Nile to come back from or a form they need to return to, but this is going to be a crowdpleasing album from how much it sounds like “In Their Darkened Shrines” meets “Those Whom the Gods Detest”.  And the solos?  Chef’s kiss.

Track 11: “Lament for the Destruction of Time”

I will say, eleven tracks is probably too many, but hey, we’ve made it this far.  Why not see it through to the end?  And to close it out, we just let the guitarists go nuts.  I like that.  It feels like a very fitting close to the album since we just made it through eight and a half minutes of the title track.  Oh, and we’re breaking it down right there at the end?  Kudos, fellas, you got me with this one hook, line and sinker.

So there you have it.  It’s a Nile album, not unlike many of the other Nile albums out there, but in my mind that will always be a feature and not a bug.  The moments where they try something new pay off, and I do wish there were more of them, but hey.  This is as solid as the band has ever been, so if they want to hold the course, I’m fine with that too.  And on that note, it’s bedtime, so…peace.

— Ian

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The Underworld Awaits Us All is available now on Napalm Records.  For more information on Nile, visit their Facebook page.