Rating: 8.0

Country: USA

Release Date: 2005

Record Label: Relapse Records

Track list:
1.Dusk Falls Upon the Temple of the Serpent on the Mount of Sunrise
2.Cast Down The Heretic
3.Sacrifice Unto Sebek
4.User-Maat-Re
5.The Burning Pits of The Duat
6. Chapter of Obeisance Before Giving Breath to the Inert One in the Presence of the Cresent Shaped Horns
7.Lashed to the Slave Stick [MP3]
8.Spawn of Uamenti
9.Annihilation of the Wicked
10. Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten

Total Playing Time: 52:04

Band Website: Nile

Nile - Annihilation of the Wicked

Karl Sanders - Vocals, guitar
Dallas Toler Wade - Guitar, vocals
George Kollias - Drums

Well well well… this one's been a long time coming. 3 years and yet another drummer change after 'In Their Darkened Shrines', Nile has once again unleashed some seriously punishing death metal upon us. Overrated? Maybe. Good? Fuck yes.

As usual, there are a few hints of so-called “Egyptian” music here, which is really just some middle-eastern influence, since no one really knows what any music made by the ancient Egyptians would have sounded like. This time though, they're less prominent, so it seems Nile have finally realized that they're much better when they simply go about the business of making epic death metal.

As ever with this type of metal, the quality of drumming is always a prominent issue, and obviously a new drummer means quite a lot. So, does this George Kollias guy live up to the standard set down by his predecessors? Well, to put it blunty, yes. This guy can pump out the double-kick with the best of them, as well as slowing down to deliver some serious heaviness, and best of all, he's not hampered by the annoying washed-out kickdrum sound which sometimes plagued In 'The Darkened Shrines'.

It also seems the band have decided to veer away from short, pointless songs. There's 10 tracks here, two of which are short interludes, and the other 8 being almost universally long and developed. “Sacrifice Unto Sebek”, “The Burning Pits Of The Duat” and “Lashed To The Slave Stick” fill the quota for shorter tracks, while the rest stretch out to rival previous epics like “To Dream of Ur” and “Unas, Slayer of the Gods”. In particular, the last two tracks and “User-Maat-Re” are all around 9 minutes, yet somehow never become boring or overlong. The trick is that Nile focuses more on atmosphere than compact brutality – most death metal bands would induce terminal boredom if they tried to write a 9 minute song, but Nile always seems to pull it off. In fact, to reiterate my previous statement, they're better off when they do this sort of thing. Overall, 'Annihilation Of The Wicked' is their strongest album since 'Amongst The Catacombs…' and even surpasses that album by integrating the epic structures incorporated on the two intervening albums (or maybe just re-introduced from 'Festivals Of Atonement') and infusing them into the framework of hyperspeed chaos.

Of course, they couldn't help coming up with some ridiculously long song titles too, which are just silly. But I'll let them get away with it, yet again…

July 3rd, 2005