Nile
The Underworld Awaits Us All


3.8
excellent

Review

by Benjamin Jack STAFF
August 30th, 2024 | 33 replies


Release Date: 08/23/2024 | Tracklist

Review Summary: It’s the sound of the underground, the beat of the drum goes *machine gun noises*

Nile’s ability of keeping their sound reliably abrasive, technical and hard-hitting over the years has been quite extraordinary. Thematically unique and instantly recognisable, their head-wobbling percussive pitter-patters, blistering solos and obsession with Ancient Egypt has seen them chisel out a niche that they have gently prodded the boundaries of for nigh on thirty years now. The Underworld Awaits Us All is again a further development of this mould, demonstrating their usual creative focus, but expanding upon the groundwork lain by previous album Vile Nilotic Rights in a slightly more genre-typical, but no less compelling way. The 5 year gap between albums clearly hasn’t allowed enough time for complacency to set in, as a sharper sense of single-minded musicality and a cleaner, but similarly impactful production style threads its way through Underworld like a barbed-wire suture. It’s slightly less cacophonous than the band’s best work; the outfit have noted their newfound focus on sheer barbarism over the usual culture-appropriate orchestral additions. Nonetheless, the result is a record that feels tighter overall, deftly mixing the instruments in a way that retains the prominent historical influence within the songwriting, but also adding in a glossy clarity to an (even) heavier-handed sonic texture. It’s imposing and grand, polished up with a rich, white-knuckle aesthetic that feels quintessentially ‘Nile’, only streamlined.

Very much in-step with the rest of Nile’s discography, Underworld is a breakneck slab of death metal with a consistently oppressive edge thanks to the huge sound and intimidatingly dark songwriting. Massive, barraging riffs and eyebrow-raisingly technical solos buff the experience, and it’s all shackled together by Karl Sanders’ monstrous, iconically guttural vocals. Now 61, his devastating ability is incredibly impressive, and despite the general one-dimensionality of his delivery, it remains the ideal complement to the imagery of sand-buried tombs, scorching deserts, ancient gods and somewhat unpleasant torture. The music is also well balanced with these elements, with multifaceted, Eastern-influenced songwriting emblematic of the songs’ core conceits, and perfectly suited to the authority of Sanders’ gargling through his throatful of concrete. ‘To Strike With Secret Fang’ and ‘Overlords of the Black Earth’, exemplify such rollercoaster re-imaginings of traditional Egyptian musicality, with mildly droning, lumbering riffs that flit between technically impressive and monstrously nasty in an instant. ‘Overlords’, with its lyrical focus on an undead afterlife, feels well-served by its raucous riff and hurricane drums, crafting an appropriate feeling of foreboding, tomb-shattering ascendancy. Further, it illustrates Nile’s desire to focus on more typical metal tropes, being fittingly themed for the genre, and unyieldingly savage from beginning to end.

The guitar work on tracks like ‘True Gods of the Desert’ and the title track encapsulate the labyrinthine claustrophobia and vast spectacle so associated with the tombs and plains of Egypt; cavernous, unforgiving, and soul-shaking. The hand-in-hand synergy between all aspects of their sound is something Nile have always been proficient at, but the dialled-in brutality of Underworld feels so fitting when paired with the savage landscapes or the intimidating deities Nile wish to channel. The violently rapid tempo-switching riff on ‘Naqada II Enter The Golden Age’, an album highlight, feels like a convergence of the band’s styles from both their early and more recent output, managing to be majestic and vicious, but gratifyingly digestible. Granted, despite the change in approach to writing, the musical content throughout the album is hardly breaking new ground for the outfit, but it’s certainly pleasant to see that the efficiency they’ve spent their career honing has been maintained to such a high standard even when the style is slightly shaken up. There’s an impressive level of fidelity within the production of Underground- one which serves the intricacies of the individual pieces without dampening the energy too harshly. The drums sit front and centre with the guitars roaring behind them, and the production ensures both components weave together like vines ensnaring one another; each strand tightly linked, but without strangling the other. This is very much the distillation of the old-and-new school merging, and it feels not only thoroughly modern in effect, but classic in its songwriting and true to the band’s ethos.

Nile’s style has pretty much been embalmed and mummified at this point; lovingly preserved, and very deserving of the legendary status the scene has bestowed upon them. The Underworld Awaits Us All is a real pleasure to experience, both in terms of seeing the group return, and for the high standard of the LP itself. The unrelenting ferocity, the entertaining subject matter, the pleasingly diverse mix of old school death metal and modern production… it’s almost uniform in how superbly crafted it is. The record does lose some steam around the three-quarter mark- something of an unfortunate trademark for the band at this point- but this is only because the rest of the album is so strong by comparison. It’s to be expected though; after nearly an hour of worshipping the dead, being educated about the afterlife and then forced to eat feces, lethargy is bound to kick in. Regardless, the release remains exceptionally strong both in sound and content, absolutely stuffed full of fiery rage, dynamic musical asides and brain-rattling vocals. As Nile’s tenth album, it’s both better than and exactly what you expect, eclipsing their most recent releases and standing out as their best work since Those Whom The Gods Detest.



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user ratings (121)
3.7
great
other reviews of this album
Vasilis S. CONTRIBUTOR (3.5)
He smiteth the defeated with his mace....



Comments:Add a Comment 
JWT155
August 30th 2024


14965 Comments


This at the very least is a fun record.

PumpBoffBag
Staff Reviewer
August 30th 2024


1653 Comments

Album Rating: 3.8

bit late but yeah, rules

Titan
September 1st 2024


25222 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

so Mark Lewis produced this....he's got a pretty damn good track record, most notably A Skeletal Domain......that might even be CC's best sounding record

Hawks
September 1st 2024


92881 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Best Nile since AOTW yeah.

cageofman
September 1st 2024


260 Comments


The first thing i looked for was reference to track 2 and the conviction to write it all out - sadly not there. People who do not know anything about this would read this and not be alerted to the crazy track title that never ends. Surely more than a subtle reference to it is warranted?

KrillBoi
September 2nd 2024


490 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

I WILL NOT EAT WHAT I DETEST

WHAT I DETEST IS FECES

I WILL NOT PARTAKE OF IT

EXCREMENT

I WILL NOT CONSUME IT

IT SHALL NOT ENTER ME

IT SHALL NOT COME NEAR MY HANDS

NOR MY MOUTH

NOR SHALL IT FALL FROM MY BELLY

I WILL NOT SUFFER NEGLECT NOR BECOME SUBDUED

PumpBoffBag
Staff Reviewer
September 2nd 2024


1653 Comments

Album Rating: 3.8

Story of my life man

Flugmorph
September 2nd 2024


34809 Comments


this album just feels like a bog standard dm album for the first half or so idk man this isn't really the nile i fell in love with anymore...

Pho3nix
September 2nd 2024


1661 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

"Nile’s style has pretty much been embalmed and mummified at this point"



Agreed

Dmax28
September 2nd 2024


1325 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Last half of this album blew my mind a few days ago.

Kusangii
September 2nd 2024


7013 Comments


#20 on the German album charts. They are beyond based over there

Michal4Srnka
September 3rd 2024


280 Comments


The good album starts with the acoustic interlude

TheNotrap
Staff Reviewer
September 3rd 2024


19007 Comments


One of the summer jams together with Fleshgod. Good stuff

Flugmorph
September 3rd 2024


34809 Comments


an extreme metal album like this on #20 is crazy but i guess metal fans are just proportionally more likely to buy albums these days

Kusangii
September 3rd 2024


7013 Comments


I just think it's Germany that is that based. Don't think it happens anywhere else. I've never seen a tech-death album be that high on a chart position ever. Makes me happy tbh

Michal4Srnka
September 5th 2024


280 Comments


True Gods of the Desert is one of the best dm songs

evilford
September 5th 2024


66653 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

Pretty standard nile release

Michal4Srnka
September 5th 2024


280 Comments


A standard Nile release is a masterpiece

evilford
September 5th 2024


66653 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

Looooooool

Beardog
September 5th 2024


5329 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

yeah this sounds pretty awesome. Production is great



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