Nile – ‘In Their Darkened Shrines’

So, Nile have returned. After the pure genius that was 2000’s ‘Black Seeds of Vengeance’, this album was always going to have a job living up to it’s preceding disc, but it just about manages. This disc maintains the winning formula that Nile discovered on ‘Black Seeds…’, i.e. to mix ultra-brutal, hyper-speed Death Metal with the musical heritage and to some extent instrumentation of the Middle East.

Not really any kind of departure from ‘B.S.o.V.’ in any notable respect, but the high standard is still there, this is unbelievably good, brutal Death Metal.

The drumming is also-unbelievably enough-even faster and more brutal than before, and the overall production is greatly improved, so much so that the guitars can be heard at all times, even in the blast sections, all though it has to be said this is at the expense of the bass, which on previous albums you had to struggle to hear, and here it just completely lost. Another thing on this release is that the synth and other non-guitar embellishments have dome up in the mix and seem to be more integral to the songs, giving them an Indiana Jones feel at times. Your favourite ideas are all here, the Eastern scale guitar riffs, the slow groove parts, the aforementioned monstrous, inhuman drumming.

Everything you would expect from a Nile album is here in bucket loads, but nothing new. I’m rambling a bit here, but what I’m really trying to say is that this is basically ‘Black Seeds…’ Mark II. I am personally well up for a re-run, but I don’t think I could handle a third one. Next time round, Nile are gonna have to pull a few new ideas out of their leather adventurer’s bags, or people are going to get bored.

-- Tim van Tinteren

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