Nile - The Underworld Awaits Us All (2024)^{Release ID: 54425}

Nile finally return with their tenth studio album, almost five years on from 2019's Vile Nilotic Rites. These guys are one of my absolute favourite tech death crews, but even I must admit that they have been somewhat underwhelming over the last two or three albums, so I didn't go into The Underworld Awaits Us All with particularly high expectations. Happily, however, the band seem to have returned, post-pandemic, with a renewed sense of purpose, laying down their best material for some time. They have obviously retained the technical chops and songwriting skill that such well-established names have accumulated over the years, but they have also rediscovered a younger band's vitality and energy that it seemed had deserted them some time ago. They have definitely upped the ante in the brutality stakes on The Underworld Awaits Us All, their technical skullduggery all seemingly directed towards the purpose of hammering your senses with pummelling body blows of visceral and savage precision.

The riffing is some of their best in years, frantic, fierce and energetic, yet flawlessly executed, whilst the soloing is expansive and expressive, yet is also superbly controlled and tightly executed so as not to sound self-indulgent or trite. Particular note must be made of George Kollias machine gun-like drumming which reaches hyperkinetic performance levels without ever missing a beat. The man must be part Terminator to sustain this level of drumming intensity and precision. The production is worth a mention as it is as impressive as the musical performances, with a depth and clarity that allows the entire band to shine and no one suffering for want of presence in the mix, both guitars and drums sounding beautifully crisp and sharp.

This is obviously a Nile record so there is a certain level of grandiosity expected, which is lent an additional level of pomp by the inclusion of operatically choral backing vocals to accompany the usual roaring, deathly growls and the eastern-flavoured interludes are present and correct once more. Despite the emphasis on the Ancient Egyptian themes that permeate the band's very essence, I have never really felt that they get in the way of the music and once more that is true here. The moments where the atmospherics take over are relatively brief, being mainly restricted to the short interludes and the closing instrumental, "Lament for the Destruction of Time", the band never losing sight of the fact that their fans are metalheads who come to hear technically adept death metal that is at once searingly savage and brutally bludgeoning. And in that respect Nile have delivered, presenting us with their best album since Those Whom the Gods Detest and in so doing, rising once more to the top of the tech death tree.

I had big problems with Nile's last album. Vile Necrotic Rites lived up to the "vile" aspect of its title perfectly for me. Frenzied songwriting, a virtual album-spanning lack of structure and an overall sense of confusion to the many layers that were applied to the tracks all culminated in a very frustrating experience for me. As a result, I kind of disregarded The Underworld Awaits Us All upon hearing it was in the pipeline for release this year. If what was waiting in the underworld was anything that resembled 2019s offering, then I was not up for that at all. It was the inclusion of the track Chapter for Not Being Hung Upside Down on a Stake in the Underworld and Made to Eat Feces by the Four Apes (catchy title) on a workout playlist I found that turned my head.

Thankfully, we have a return to a more structured and measured style of songwriting, resulting in a potent death metal attack that although still not the most memorable affair is clearly an improvement from what came last time around. Based on the eleven tracks showcased here, what awaits us in the underworld is pretty much everything you would expect from a Nile record. Urgent riffs, Far Eastern musical ramblings and grand stories of the Ancient World. With the usual amount of theatre that we have all come to expect from Karl and co, Nile’s tenth studio offering feels like a return to form, even if it does not quite fully hit the mark overall.

The album is still a little too grandiose at eleven tracks in length even though the track lengths are varied and the inclusion of operatic vocals on some tracks does not really add any depth to them. As a result, the album does sound a little too big for its boots in some places. Similarly, the attempts at cleaner (never quite totally clean) vocals come off as lacking a bit. Plaudits for attempting some variety, despite the delivery being somewhat off. Technically as masterful as ever, this album will not disappoint the die-hard fans of the band. For the rest of us, it is just another Nile record though.