Released By: Nuclear Blast Records
Release Date: 28 August 2015
Genre: Technical Death Metal
Links: nile-catacombs.net , Facebook
Line Up:
Karl Sanders – Guitars, Vocals, Instrumentals
Dallas Toler-Wade – Guitars, Vocals
George Kollias – Drums
Brad Parris – Bass, Vocals
Tracklist:
01. Call To Destruction
02. Negating The Abominable Coils Of Apep
03. Liber Stellae Rubeae
04. In The Name Of Amun
05. What Should Not Be Unearthed
06. Evil To Cast Out Evil
07. Age Of Famine
08. Ushabti Reanimator
09. Rape Of The Black Earth
10. To Walk Forth From Flames Unscathed
Imhotep’s favorite band is back, and leaving no ear unshredded and no face without being thoroughly melted. It has been three years since the last brilliant Nile album At the Gate of Sethu, and fans have been chomping at the bit to hear near music from them. When I heard they had a new album coming soon I was beyond excited to hear what they had to offer their fans this time.
As is expected, the bands songs are a veritable history lesson on Egyptian history and intellectual archaeological ponderings. Without a doubt I have learned more about this culture and archaeology listening to their vastly smart albums over the years. They entered my life back in 2007 when they were slated to be on the free Ozzfest that year. Initially I wasn’t totally hooked as I was still coming to terms with most extreme metal bands, and we missed the bulk of their set, but what I heard ended up beginning the turnaround on my thinking on them. I later investigated their music and fell in love with it fairly quickly. Death metal tends to be songs about…well, death, or some variation of it. On top of the deep lyrics was a style and sound that was brutally heavy with crushing riffs and headbanging aggression, it made for the perfect combination. Taking it all to the next level is their new album What Should Not Be Unearthed, taking their usual Egyptian themed songs, but giving a background story that is almost a Lovecraftian spin with heavy allusions to Charles Darwin ideology. This is some seriously cerebral stuff going on here, which has become an expectation, I think, of a Nile album. This album truly is next level stuff because the songs themselves while being smart are also still so heavy, and while instantly Nile, you can tell they really wanted to do something out of the box for them while maintaining what their fan base has come to love from them. On songs like “In the Name of Amun,” “Negating the Abominable Coils of Apep,” “Rape of the Black Earth,” and “Evil To Cast Out Evil” Nile have recorded an album that could very well be the best thing they have ever done.
Karl Sanders, Dallas Toler-Wade, and George Kollias have truly out done the legacy of what Nile has presented in the past. With a masterful batch of new songs that only strengthen their already potent catalog, What Should Not Be Unearthed shows a band that is already held in great admiration in the Death metal world releasing an album that should be very high on people’s list of best albums of the year. I didn’t think it was possible for them to top such brilliant albums as In Their Darkened Shrines and Ithyphallic, but this one simply devastates those.
Written by: Chris Martin
Ratings: Chris 10/10
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