NILE - At The Gate Of Sethu

Nile is a band that always released albums that stood the test of time, with their story starting back at 1993. Their music was always dealing with lyrics and themes inspired by Ancient Egypt, something that gives a mysterious atmosphere to their creations. Their new release comes almost three years after their previous album, and I am sure that will start endless discussions amongst fans. Musicwise the band is doing what knows perfectly to do, delivering some Death Metal with the most refined technique and skills that characterizes their music. The songs are complex in structure, with enough changes but always heavy and aggressive as possible. The dual growling vocals are fitting perfectly with the music and enhancing the atmosphere of the whole album. What is more interesting here is that each song contain moments of extreme aggression, which the band uses in a more controlled way maximizing the result, instead of creating songs more straightforward and exploding. This means that the album definitely needs much more spins to grow into you, and some time to fully explore each moment of it. Once again the guitar duo has creating some remarkable catchy and fast guitar riffs and solos, while George Kollias can be considered amongst the most fast, technical and talented drummers around. No fillers here, even the two 1 minute intermissions help in the creation of the atmosphere, and somehow are a vital part of the story Nile want to tell. One small objection in the production area, which in my opinion is not the production an album of such technical caliber deserves. As always Nile came up with an album of sheer brutality and unquestionable skill, only this time things are a bit more difficult and complex. Maybe some might say it's not their best album, others might love it, but the fact is that the band always dares and experiments with their sound. Listen carefully and you might be surprised.

9/10