November 2021 Feature Release – The Horde Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Horde has been nominated by myself. It's 2005's classic "Annihilation Of The Wicked" album from South Carolina technical death metal outfit Nile.

https://metal.academy/releases/2428

I already reviewed this album and my words back a couple of years ago still ring true to this day.

My introduction record to Nile, their fourth full-length offered a brilliant gateway into their brand of technical and brutal death metal. Vast though it seemed in scope at the time the whole experience felt varied and accessible still. Whether it was the far eastern promise on the strings or the looming beastly riffs that cemented the death metal credentials of the record, there was enough ability on show for the record to gain instant respect from this listener.

For me this record completed the band's golden run that started with 2000's Black Seeds Of Vengeance. It engaged all the brutality of the preceding two records but also showed a much more mature and skilled delivery, complete with a story-telling to the song writing that made the whole experience even more compelling. The multi-instrumental wizard that is Karl Sanders leads brilliantly on this release. His supporting cast of Toler-Wade, Vesano and the brilliant Kollias play sterling roles in the execution of the album and Kernon's production job lets the music come across as vibrant as Landau's artwork suggests it will be.

The band for me went into a bit of a decline post-Annihilation of the Wicked culminating in the decidedly ordinary Vile Nilotic Rites in 2019. But their 2005 release was a triumph in both design and content and is an album I still visit with regularity to this day.

4/5

I selected this release purely because it's a bit of a favourite of mine & I recently noticed that I hadn't rated it. (That's actually been the driver behind a fair few of my recent feature release nominations so I'm afraid it's been for purely selfish reasons but you know what? ....It's my party & I'll cry if I want to!) On paper Nile were always going to be a band that would appeal to me & I believe it was Ben that brought this album to my attention as soon as I returned to metal in 2009. I recall that it blew my socks off & it still does to this day. George Kollias' unbelievable machine gun-like extreme drumming & the dual lead guitar trade-offs of Karl Sanders & Dallas Toler-Wade are spectacular & I love the way that Nile manages to incorporate a blend of old school death metal, technical death metal & my beloved brutal death metal in roughly equal portions without ever really pigeon-holing themselves under any of those banners. The Egyptian themes are incorporated beautifully & I particularly love the doomier sections which see the band exploring their more atmospheric side. The vocals can be a touch generic at times (particularly when they simply follow the rhythm of the blasting riffs) but they really find their groove when things slow down a bit which allows for a little more emotion to creep in. The quality of the tracklisting is very high throughout but the album definitely peaks across the last couple of tracks in my opinion with the doomy closer "Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten" being an absolute gem of the highest order. I also really love the more brutal stuff like "Cast Down the Heretic" & "Chapter of Obeisance Before Giving Breath to the Inert One in the Presence of the Crescent Shaped Horns" which reminds me a lot of a band like Hour Of Penance who I'm a big fan of. I genuinely love "Annihilation Of The Wicked" & think it may be my favourite Nile release these days. It should be essential listening for all death metal fans as far as I'm concerned.

For fans of Lykathea Aflame, Hour Of Penance & Origin.

4.5/5

I have documented previously how I struggle with large chunks of death metal, especially the exaggerated violence and brutality. Overtly technical death metal doesn't really chime with me either as it's often staccato nature disrupts the flow of the tracks too much to my ears. Consequently I have a pool of favoured bands I tend to turn to for my death metal fix - Autopsy, Bolt Thrower and Vader for example. Near the very top of that list come Nile.

Nile were one of the first bands I got into upon my return to metal after my hiatus during most of the 1990s, via their Black Seeds of Vengeance and In Their Darkened Shrines albums, so I remember anticipating the release of  Annihilation of the Wicked with some relish. Luckily we Nile fans were not disappointed and with AotW Nile unleashed their tour de force. Though it is technically superb, it doesn't flog that technicality to the expense of the flow of the tracks, each of which run like a dream nor does it short-change on the heaviness front, battering the listener relentlessly with wave after wave of brutal riffs and some of the finest solos I have ever heard on a death metal album, such as those heard on Cast Down the Heretic and Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten. The Ancient Egyptian theme is a great motif but doesn't really have any defining impact on the actual music as we are mercifully spared any goofy, faux-authentic egyptian passages, save the odd intro or interjection such as the intro to User-Maat-Re and briefly during Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten. There is plenty of variation in pacing from hulking, almost doom-like passages to brutal headlong charges with the longer tracks making for some seriously epic death metal. Tracks like the title track and Cast Down the Heretic are honestly some of the finest death metal I have ever heard and the quality overall is exquisite, revealing a band that were absolutely on top of their game as both technicians and songwriters. One of my all-time favourite death metal releases and I salute you Daniel for picking this gem for a monthly showcase.

5/5

Nile and I have a rough history. Back when I was first exploring the more extreme parts of Metal they inevitably came up on whatever search I was doing and man, did I not like it. After a few years of trudging through more and more Metal subgenres, I wonder how things have changed for me? 

...somehow, someway, nothing's changed. There's just something about Nile's sound that is so uninteresting and bland to me that, after reading all the praise from the seasoned Horde members, I really tried my best to get into this album the best I could. Sadly there's something about the vocal style, the chaotic riff structure, or just the songwriting in general that just doesn't jive with me. I don't get invested in hardly any of the riffs, the bombastic orchestral breaks are just dull...I think it's safe to say that this is a me problem and not an everyone else problem, considering I have quite a few technically impressive Death Metal albums I thoroughly enjoy. My 3 or so old score, disappointingly, still stands. 

3/5