Great 2 CD Lot.

It's hard to not be impressed by the sheer sonic onslaught that is otherwise known as Nile. Except to the most hardened death metal fanatic, the genre has a way of sounding the same after a while, but Nile is one of the few exceptions -- able to put their own unmistakable fingerprints on this heavy duty style (Egyptian-influenced lyrics and musical bits, highly impressive instrumental dexterity, etc.). And on their sixth studio effort overall, 2009's Those Whom the Gods Detest, Nile has once again proven that they are a step ahead of the rest of the pack. Although some of the sonic depth has to be attributed to producer Neil Kernon (after all, he worked with such sticklers for audio perfection as Queensr che in the past), it's the true metallic fury that Nile create themselves that makes it all extremely impressive. Case in point, such delicious death metal ditties as "Kafir!," while on selections such as the title track and what's sure to be top metal song title of 2009, "Yezd Desert Ghul Ritual in the Abandoned Towers of Silence," Karl Sanders shows why he is considered by many to be the finest guitarist of the extreme metal genre (both songs incorporate Sanders' love of all things Middle Eastern). "Exotic" and "heavy metal" are not often terms used together, but in the case of Those Whom the Gods Detest, they go together as splendidly as peanut butter and jelly.

Call it Discovery Channel metal if you must, but Nile runs circles around the majority of death metal acts that churn out cookie-cutter records crammed with juvenile gore-splattered lyrics and incomprehensible blastbeats. While their third full-length, In Their Darkened Shrines, finds these genre-leaders advancing their sound in minute increments from previous platters Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka and Black Seeds of Vengeance, all can be forgiven when taking into account Nile's staggering, well-researched thematic depth and impressive musicianship. Plus, like Black Seeds, the CD booklet details the weight of mastermind/guitarist, and unofficial Egyptologist Karl Sanders, which means the band's work captures the nastiness and pitch-black themes of death metal, while at the same time being a work of blood-soaked historical fiction inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and ancient hieroglyphic texts. And Shrines is an utterly convincing realization of Nile's passion and intelligence, incorporating jarring tempo changes -- from downtuned doom/sludge metal to concise hyper-blasts -- laser-precise riffing and guttural grindcore vocals into the bowel-twisting, and occasionally startlingly melodic, structures of "Sarcophagus," "Unas Slayer of Gods," and "Wind of Horus." But the album's crowning achievement is a four-part suite "In Their Darkened Shrines," a truly epic masterpiece in both concept and execution, seamlessly incorporating majestic, sweeping keyboards, chanting choirs, tribal drumming, and battle horns into the mix, with recurring melodic themes marking what is easily the band's most ambitious and effective composition to date -- a pseudo-symphonic death metal soundtrack that conjures up visions of tyranny, slavery, rebellion, and sacrifice to cruel gods. While other acts in the genre are content to create the musical equivalent of slasher flicks, Nile aspires to Lawrence of Arabia heights, essentially beating old tyrants Morbid Angel at their own game. In Their Darkened Shrines transports the listener into the shadows of the ancient pyramids many millennia ago, and explores the brutal psychology of the time as well, thus betraying a level of ambition to which very few bands in the genre aspire. Quite frankly, Nile is the death metal band of the '00s, and Shrines is, for all intents and purposes, a masterpiece. 

Combining the extreme speed and nihilism of technical death metal with the mysticism and ancient melodies of Middle Eastern music, Nile emerged in the mid-'90s with a powerful and idiosyncratic sound that helped set them apart from their heavy metal contemporaries. Beginning with 1998's Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka, Nile honed their self-proclaimed "Ithyphallic Metal," releasing a string of successful outings like Those Whom the Gods Detest (2009), At the Gate of Sethu (2012), and Vile Nilotic Rights (2019), that looked to the seemingly disparate worlds of Egyptian history and H.P. Lovecraft, among others, for inspiration. 

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