Nile - In Their Darkened Shrines (2002)^{Release ID: 2427}

My initial experiences with South Carolina death metallers Nile back in the mid-90’s tape trading scene didn’t exactly set my world on fire to be honest. It wouldn’t be until Ben reintroduced me to them through their 2000 sophomore album “Black Seeds of Vengeance” upon my return to metal in 2009 that I’d start to give them much of my attention. Admittedly, I did initially find them to be a little lacking in dynamics but that perception gradually wore off as I came to grips with the sheer barbarity of Nile’s most relentlessly brutal offering. Once I was hooked, I’d quickly investigate the rest of Nile’s back catalogue of studio albums & found them to be universally enjoyable so I’ve continued to keep abreast of each subsequent Nile record over the years. Our most recent crossing of paths was when I revisited 2005’s “Annihilation of the Wicked” fourth album as one of our November 2021 feature releases which resulted in me claiming that particular record as Nile’s finest work & a genuine death metal classic. Since that time though, I’ve always wondered how it’s illustrious predecessor might compare with it as it's been many years since it last passed my unsuspecting ears. Let's find out then, shall we?

The “Black Seeds of Vengeance” album was a dense barrage of unrelenting brutality that showed a clear intent to separate itself from any form of accessibility & that approach hasn’t been abandoned for “In Their Darkened Shrines” by any means. You won’t be in any doubt as to what band you’re listening to here as the changes in Nile’s Egyptian-themed death metal model are fairly subtle but are important nonetheless. There’s a touch more technicality & angularity to Nile’s high-velocity riffage here (particularly on tracks like “Execration Text”, “Wind of Horus” & “Destruction of the Temple of the Enemies of Ra”) but not enough to warrant the almost unanimous tagging of this record as a technical death metal release in my opinion. I honestly think that many critics are tricked into that association by the technical proficiency of new drummer Tony Laureano (Acheron/Angelcorpse/Brujeria/Malevolent Creation/Nidingr) who capably fills the shoes of equally talented session skinsman Derek Roddy (Blotted Science/Divine Empire/Hate Eternal/Malevolent Creation/Today Is The Day) on what would end up being his only appearance on a Nile record. I’d actually suggest that “In Their Darkened Shrines” still sits much more comfortably under the brutal death metal tag as it spends far more time simply bludgeoning the listener into submission than it does dazzling them with technical wizardry. Regardless of that though, the most rewarding parts of the album tend to be those that benefit from an increased focus on atmospherics with the slower sections allowing for a newly invigorated level of creativity. In fact, I’d suggest that the two tracks that leave me truly devastated both fall into this category in doom/death closer “Ruins” (my personal favourite) & the ambient-infused death metal of “I Whisper In The Ear Of The Dead”, both of which better harness & enhance the lyrical themes than the relentless blastathons are capable of.

The 58-minute length of “In Their Darkened Shrines” makes it Nile’s longest release overall & I have to question the need for such indulgence given that most of the record is so savage & blast-beat driven. It seems pretty extreme to me as I find myself feeling close to exhausted once it’s all over. The need to include an 18-minute, four-part opus at the end of the tracklisting (i.e. the title track) is probably the reason for it but that piece may as well be four separate songs as you likely wouldn’t know it was a single epic if you didn’t read about it. In fact, the same can be said for the infamous Egyptian lyrical themes because they mean very little if you don’t read the lyric sheet (which I don’t). There are mild melodic links to the themes included in the instrumentation but it’s nothing too extreme so it’s very easy to simply treat “In Their Darkened Shrines” as a very solid brutal death metal record which contains no real blemishes across it’s twelve tracks.

So how does Nile’s third album compare with its highly praised “Annihilation of the Wicked” follow-up then? Well, I don’t consider it to be as classic as that particular release. It’s not as sophisticated or fully realized as its younger sibling, mainly because it spends a greater percentage of its run time simply bludgeoning the listener in as brutal a fashion as it can muster &, in doing so, misses the opportunity to better capitalize on those wonderfully effective atmospherics. It’s still a very strong death metal record though & I'd suggest that it was the best thing Nile had released to the time. I have no doubt that it’ll more than satisfy the requirements of your average Suffocation, Hate Eternal or Lykathea Aflame fan but it’s status as one of the true greats of the death metal genre is perhaps a little overstated in my opinion.

Normally it takes me one listen to an album to grasp it all.  But sometimes I need to flesh things out a little more.  In this instance, it was relistening to Nile's tertiary album, In Their Darkened Shrines, after going through a bunch of brutal death metal.  I'm in the middle of my death metal standards and opinions changing drastically, which may also reinvent how I rank my overall top 100 metal albums.  Now there was a lot I appreciated about this album, and there was a little I criticized.  Let's see how it pans out this time.

The intro started out similarly to how I would start out a tech metal album, weird and melodic at the same time.  Overtime, the album would cover a variety of moods and atmospheres with this single genre, taking time to be proggy, epic and doomy like with Unas, Slayer of the Gods, or speedy and catchy, like with Kheftiu Asar Butchiu, or just plain evil like Churning the Maelstrom, which reaches Devourment levels of brutality.  Notice, that this is only in the track 4-6 string. The general consensus after comparing this to albums by Suffocation and Defeated Snity, as well as ones I heard less recently but am still familiar with like Devourment and Disfiguring the Goddess, tells me that this album's primary focus is depth, not necessarily brutality or technicality.  However, the brutality never suffers.  Honestly, this is as brutal in its instrumental delivery as the Human Waste EP, but this album boasts a presence drawn in by its Egyptian subject matter, which means Nile are operating on a spiritual level, truly making ART in order to rise about the ranks of their genre.

While the style itself and the formatting of each song isn't always new or revolutionary, their moods and tricks are all healthy enough to keep the album entertaining.  This is largely because of a very strong depth to the band's personalities, effortlessly perfecting the "mood" aspects and overshadowing their own technical and songwriting skills, as good as the writing is on its own.  Our epic Unas, Slayer of the Gods is probably one of the finest death metal songs I've ever heard.  It's an 11-minute track I'd easily return to if I was in the mood, and honor I've only ever given two 11-minute epics in my life: Through Silver in Blood by Neurosis, and the album version of Anything for Love by Meat Loaf. And after having heard the doomy masterwork Cause of Death by Obituary and the slower and psychedelic Gateways to Annihilation by Morbid Angel, I have a much deeper appreciation for the ghostly depths of the droning sound effects of slower songs like I Whisper in the Ear of the Dead.  If I were to make a Halloween playlist, it wouldn't have any corny metal covers of Spooky Scary Skeletons.  It would be all about truly creepy atmospheres like the one I Whisper in the Ear of the Dead provides.  And the best part is that songs like that feels so consistent with faster-paced blasters like Wind of Horus, and even then, that track has an atmosphere in the middle that's not only furious, but slow building with an atmospheric guitar drone similar to atmo-black metal.

All of my needs for brutal death metal, specifically the begging for more depth and variety, are met in this hour long entry to a genre where even a half hour can feel overlong thanks to monotony and velocity.  The greatest albums in the world need DEPTH, and this is an album that's loaded with it.  It provides a unique experience that only Nile could provide thanks to their passion for myths, legends and themes.  I'm honestly having trouble deciding whether or not this is the greatest death album I've ever heard because it covers so much within the genre, and it doesn't even need brutal's famous subgenre, slam.  This might be a death metal album, but it goes beyond that.  In Their Darkened Shrines is a spiritual journey of the souls of the undead and their suffering over several millenniums.