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Nile: Amongst the catacombs of Nephren-Ka
09/03/12 || Habakuk
Nile is one of those bands that I was recommended by getting their whole discography digitally thrown in my face back in 2005. And as you might know, this is by far the shittiest way of discovering a band.* You are robbed of the capability to absorb any details, except for those whoring for the most attention. Thus, matters like the best production, the longest or most epic song become more relevant, while raw gems like “Amongst the catacombs…” fall below the threshold.
*The best way is stumbling over one of their most obscure releases for 5 bucks in a used bin, buying it and gradually digging yourself through their back catalogue from there onwards.
Once I believed to know what to expect with Nile, I just went for the epic stuff. However, the trend to epicness is something that only started with their second album, “Black seeds of vengeance”, where they first experimented (and succeeded) with a 9-minute epic. In contrast, on this here debut (33 minutes in total), more than half of the songs are below 2 minutes and the longest one clocks in at under 5. It is only on the following two outputs (after the joining of Dallas Toler-Wade) that Nile would gradually move towards the 50 minutes mark where they have now been comfortably nesting for four consecutive releases, with long song outliers becoming more and more elementary.
Sporting preconceived notions like described, little did I appreciate the raw savagery on display here, praising “Annihilation of the Wicked” as the band’s uncontested high point. Which it still is to me – if you are looking for the now typical Nile sound. Outside of that frame, “Amongst…” is pretty bad-ass in its own right, though. It shows signs of where the band would later take their sound, yet it’s still distinctively different in its approach. Except for the retarded “Kudurru Maqlu” that I interpret as serving novelty value alone and the at least pretty cool “Die Rache Krieg Lied Der Assyriche” (Englisch Butcher Able I Just Greatly Aswell!), the songs on here combine a rather accessible ilk of brutal death metal with short melodic passages that manage to evoke that middle-eastern spirit Nile is so proficient in. What’s different from later Nile however is that at times, the band breaks into some beastly tempo changes that really give this a lot more dynamic than some of their later works. This provides even short outbursts like “Pestilence and iniquity”, “Barra edinazzu” or “Serpent headed mask” with enough depth to justify their existence next to the longer tunes. As you would expect from the band, those are skillfully enriched with intros, interludes and outros, ebb and flow atmospherically and generally make a nice counterpart. So as a whole, apart from “Kudurru Maqlu” (oh well, that’s about 1 minute), this album is one that can be easily enjoyed as a unit, as well as in individual song portions. Sure, the production is far from bombastic, but given the more primeval vibe this album possesses, that is only a problem when you directly compare this to later Nile works. As you might have taken from my intro, I urge you not to.
In closing, I obviously wouldn’t call this album a “hidden secret”, but I still think it is somewhat underestimated. If Metal-Archives reviews are good for something, then it is to give you a sort of aggregated picture as to how well an album holds up in general perception, given it has a certain amount of reviews. At the time of writing, this album has the least amount of recensions (9) of all Nile full-lengths, but the best score out of all of them. And by the way, why hasn’t it been reviewed on GD yet? Q.E. fucken D., I’d say. Give it a shot!
- Information
- Released: 1998
- Label: Relapse Records
- Website: www.nile-catacombs.com
- Band
- Karl Sanders: vocals, guitars
- Chief Spires: bass
- Pete Hammoura: drums, vocals
- Tracklist
- 01. Smashing the Antiu
- 02. Barra Edinazzu
- 03. Kudurru Maqlu
- 04. Serpent headed mask
- 05. Ramses, bringer of war
- 06. Stones of sorrow
- 07. Die Rache, Krieg Lied der Assyriche
- 08. The howling of the jinn
- 09. Pestilence and iniquity
- 10. Opening of the mouth
- 11. Beneath eternal oceans of sand
