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Nile: Those whom the gods detest
12/01/10 || Euthanatos
It’s an odd life, ain’t it? Initially, The Duffmeister was going to review this. Duff knows his death metal, certainly knows his Nile. Ironically, the album didn’t speak to him, and he thought it best to pass it on to me. That happens, at times. It happened just the other day with me with Blut Aus Nord. I wanted to review their latest album, but nothing came out at all. Khlysty fortunately came for the save.
So now you get me reviewing “Those Whom the Gods Detest”. Is that bad? It can be. For starters, you might not like me. Or my writing, as you don’t know me, so if you don’t like me, you’re a shallow bastard and I don’t like you either. Secondly, Duff did not care for this album. That’s right, he told me so himself. Oh, you don’t believe me? Check out November’s Audio Autoposy then, fuckface. See it with your own eyes.
Anyway, neither he nor the other fuckwads that do AA liked it much. Me? I think it’s the shit. This is seriously the best Nile album since “Black Seeds of Vengeance”. What’s that, you don’t like that album? Well, there you go then, our differences are established.
I like “In Their Darkened Shrines” and “Annihilation of the Wicked” even more, but I didn’t particularly care for “Ithyphallic”. Perhaps because I don’t care for phallic things. Who knows? Freud might be able to explain it, not me.
Anyway, “Those Whom the Gods Detest” is a great album. Nile had the fault of sounding too extreme at times, going some place where only dogs could hear them, much like Krisiun in their earlier days. This new record is certainly their most accessible. Every instrument is clearly heard, and the vocals are much, much improved. The tag team of Karl and Dallas truly shines, and there are a bunch of guest vocalists here (apparently), and I don’t know what they specifically do, but it sounds pretty, so it’s all good.
As for the songwriting itself, well, it’s just peachy. If you like death metal, you like this, and there’s no two ways about it. Actually, if I may resort to comparing Nile to Krisiun once again, it’s interesting, because both bands, in my mind, at least, released their best work when they slowed things down and improved the production. “Those Whom the Gods Detest” is the very equivalent, career-wise, to “Southern Storm”. If you didn’t like “Southerm Storm”, well then, you’re just gay, and there’s nothing I can do about that. If your mother’s cool with it, I suppose I have to be as well. Still, fag.
Slowing things down does not mean less brutality, though. Nile are still 100% aggressive, buttfuckingly so, and that makes the middle-eastern/Egyptian/whathaveyou elements all the more fascinating, when they’re intertwined with the music. Karl is great at composing this kind of stuff, and you should definitely also check out his two solo efforts, particularly this year’s one. It was one of my favourite non-metal records of the year.
Highlights? Aye, a plenty! The title-track, with its eerie intro and epic chorus, the opener “Kafir!” (There is no God but God!), “The Eye of Ra”, shit, this album is marvelous all-around. Let us group masturbate and release our sperm upon drawings of Mohammed.
I can understand people that don’t care for this album. People are simple, really, and anything more complex will startle and bewilder them. We must care and comprehend those poor souls. Evolved beings, though, will get this, for it is glorious. I may have offended the higher powers and everyone else at Global Domination. Haha, don’t care – you all suck dicks!
Nile are the shit. Have I said that already? Anyway, I kid you not, this is one of the finest releases of the year. Hooray for boobies.
The cover: As the norm, it is grand and awesome.
- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: Nuclear Blast
- Website: www.nile-catacombs.net
- Band
- Karl Sanders: guitars, vocals,
- Dallas Toler-Wade: guitars, bass, vocals
- George Kollias: drums, percussion
- Tracklist
- 01. Kafir!
- 02. Hittite Dung Incantation
- 03. Utterances of the Crawling Dead
- 04. Those Whom the Gods Detest
- 05. 4th Arra of Dagon
- 06. Permitting the Noble Dead to Descend to the Underworld
- 07. Yezd Desert Ghul Ritual in the Abandoned Towers of Silence
- 08. Kem Khefa Kheshef
- 09. The Eye of Ra
- 10. Iskander Dhul Kharnon
