Review Summary: Ra, the Sun God of Ancient Egypt, would be greatly pleased at the music that the South Carolina death metal trio creates.
It is midnight upon the Temple of Ra. "My hair is Nu; my face is Ra; my eyes are Hathor; my ears are Wepwawet; my nose is She who presides over her lotus leaf; my lips are Anubis; my molars are Selkis; my incisors are Isis the goddess; my arms are the Ram, the Lord of mendes; my breast is Neith, Lady of Sais; my back is Seth; my phallus is Osiris; my muscles are the Lords of Kheraha; my chest is he who is greatly majestic; my belly and my spine are Sekhmet; my buttocks are the Eye of Horus; my thighs and my calves are Nut; my feet are Ptah; my toes are living falcons; there is no member of mine devoid of a god, and Thoth is the protection of all my flesh." - Book of the Dead, spell 42
Lo, it was only a few weeks ago that I connected Karl Sanders' heavily Ancient Egyptian themed death metal band Nile with the spells of the Ancient Egyptian book of the Dead. It seemed fitting that I live in the capital city of Canada, and the sky gets about as dark as Satan's abyss during this time of year. "Sarcophagus" stands out as a highlight of this entire album, as does "Unas, Slayer of The Gods" which combines Ancient Egyptian musical instruments played by vocalist Karl Sanders who also delivers a superb vocal performance with tons of typical, yet interesting death growls that are the norm and essence of death metal, like splattering regurgitated meat from corpses. The riff for Unas is clearly inspired by the Candlemass song "Gothic Stone/The Well of Souls" and even Sanders admits this. Tony Laureano's drums take more beating than Riley Reid's asshole as he does gravity blast beats so heavy they tear apart the seismic face of the Underworld. This album is a primal serving of technical death metal from the Greenville, South Carolina trio. If Ra brings forth the severed head of Anubis, the dog-faced God, I will toast a Rolling Rock to him for the main inspiration for this epic band. Who would have ever thought that Ancient Egypt could be packed with death growls, epic shredding guitar riffs, and just be METAL in general?
Alas, I only hope I can receive a copy of the Ancient Egyptian Book of The Dead for Christmas this year.
This album rules.
