Nile's Vile Nilotic Rites will smite you to the ground! (Album Review)

Band: Nile
Country: USA
Genre: Death metal
Album: Vile Nilotic Rites
Release Date: November 1st 2019
Record Label: Nuclear Blast
Pre-order:https://media.nuclearblast.de/shoplanding/2019/Nile/Nile_VNR.html
Official Website: https://www.nile-official.com
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/nilecatacombs/

Lo and behold! We just received the promo of the latest Nile album – Vile Nilotic Rites. The band’s previous studio effort, What Should Not Be Unearthed, was released on August 2015.  Vile Nilotic Rites, Nile’s 9^th full length album will be released on November 1^st via Nuclear Blast.  So let’s go into the details!

First of all, we have to mention that the band has a new guitar player, Brian Kingsland, who replaced Dallas Toler-Wade in 2017. The original band members are, of course, Karl Sanders and George Kollias. Brad Parris was hired to play bass in the band in 2015.  Vile Nilotic Rites features 11 songs, or to be more precise, 55 minutes of superb death metal sonic violence. The album opener is a song called „Long Shadows of Dread“, previously released as a single on September 6th.  And this one represents the essence of Nile’s musical opus. We won’t get into details. Go figure it yourself, since the song is being streamed on YouTube.  The next one has one of the coolest song titles I came across in a while. It’s called „Oxford Handbook of Genocidal Warfare.” And yeah, the music totally fits the brutality of the title. Who would even guess that? The song starts with these raspy sounding growls, while the whole band is going 200 MPH. The riffs are beyond brutal, executed in typical Nile fashion. Kollias is pounding these drums like there’s no tomorrow, while the rest of the band does exactly the same. However, the song has some occasional dynamic shifts, with head-chopping chugging, slow parts that give some breathing space for both the band and the listener. The album title song, Vile Nilotic Rites is more melodic, and it starts with these simplistic & catchy riffs that reminded me of some older Nile material.  After the open string + melodic riff, begins a chugging assault of supersonic madness.  And on top of that, you get Karl Sanders’ solo.

 „Seven Horns of War” begins with cool, ancient sounding battle drums & trumpets that will make you feel as if you were about to watch some epic swords & sandals movie masterpiece. This song is actually the longest one on this album – 8:48 minutes of pure death metal aggression. And man! All these tempo changes combined with over-the-top technical riffs will smite you into the ground! If I’m correct, the song features 3 growlers, even though it’s really hard to differentiate 2 out of 3 guys. It is a no-brainer that every time you hear these low register, deep growls, you know it’s Karl Sanders. However, they all deliver monstrous sounding vocals. After all this death metal craziness going on, the song breaks down with this keyboard + chants-in-the-background part. What you get next is an homage to The Lord of the Rings, or to be more precise, the Uruk Hai theme (“Meat’s back on the menu boys!“) executed in a drums-of-war style. Afterwards, the song proceeds with a solo & overall death metal aesthetics. The last part of the song actually gets way slower, and that fact alone raises the bar of heaviness for quite a bit. “That Which is Forbidden” starts with this terrific melody that might remind you of the glory days of Annihilation of the Wicked. Then the groovy riffs kick in and Karl delivers these monstrous gutturals.  The whole band enters a rampage mode. The band once again balances between fast and technical on the one hand, and slow, chugging, thick sound on the other. And after 250 mph bashing, that melody from the beginning of the song becomes, what it appears to be, a quite neat solo. “Snake Pit Mating Frenzy” is as wicked as the title suggests. This is a straight forward, full-speed-ahead song and incorporates tons of Eastern vibes. For such a short amount of time (less than 3 minutes) the band launches an unstoppable supersonic offensive. Karl Sanders delivers yet another catchy solo and then the Eastern-influenced riffs kick in.  What came out unexpected are the pig squeals. „Revel in their Suffering“ is another epic track, probably THE best one on this album. It features some pretty damn awesome & memorable riffs. Those female chants are so on the spot! The groovy part is so heavy that it can cut mountains in half.  And yeah, the song is drenched in brilliantly executed Eastern influences that leave no one indifferent. Just EPIC! „Thus Sayeth the Parasites of the Mind“ is a short intro with some cool Eastern instruments. „Where is the Wrathful Sky“ starts with George Kollias’ drumming patterns that may remind you of Death’s “Flattening of Emotions”. And what happens next is merciless riff whipping combined with rapid fire drumming. And out of nowhere, Eastern percussions kick in with an acoustic guitar on top of them. Furthermore, Nile delivers some of the heaviest breakdowns of all time! If that’s not called sonic rape, I don’t know what is… This track sounds so gigantic, with occasional dissonant elements that aren’t typical for Nile.  „Where is the Wrathful Sky“ is easilly one of the best songs on the album.

„The Imperishable Stars are Sickened“ starts with this beautiful acoustic intro, only to be butchered by the heavy weight death metal distortion within a few seconds’ time. If you just take a look at the song’s duration, you’ll realise that we are talking about another epic Nile song. The track alone is kinda slow and the speed builds up when the time for the solos arrive. Once again, brief beautiful Eastern music enters our ears. After that, the song once again starts flowing in a death metal direction. And for the first time on this album, you get to hear some clean vocals. Kinda strange, eh? The second part of the song is slow & heavy AF. And finally, the song that closes the album is called „We Are Cursed“. It starts with a guitar part and haunting sounds in the background. What’s funny is that you get to hear another pig squeal in a Nile song. The vocal attack in this song has never been that wicked! Riff-wise, the song is filled with these terrific Eastern sounding riffs. And what makes it even better is its odd timing. Just perfect!

Nile’s Vile Nilotic Rites is one of the strongest death metal albums of 2019!  With this release, Nile have proven that despite the lineup change, they can deliver tremendous songs on the table. What’s astounding about this album is the way Nile puts checks and balances in place, mediating between technical death metal, groovy, and Eastern vibes. Downsides? Well, pig squeals and those unarticulated clean vocals aren’t our cup of coffee. Maybe we’ll get used to them over time. And yeah, the guitars can get a bit muddy when the whole band is going 250 MPH, but that’s the common place in technical death metal, right? Nevertheless, with Vile Nilotic Rites album, Nile brings fresh blood to the altar of the ancient ones, without hesitating to experiment and set sail for unexplored waters in search of new creative challenges.

Rating: 8,9/10