Death metal veterans NILE recently announced their highly anticipated tenth album, “The Underworld Awaits Us All”, out August 23 via Napalm Records. The LP’s breakneck first single, “Chapter For Not Being Hung Upside Down On A Stake In The Underworld And Made To Eat Feces By The Four Apes”, arrived to much acclaim from longtime fans, and was instantly dubbed by Consequence as “kinetic, technically dense brutality”, while MetalSucks hailed it as “face disfiguring death metal from start to finish”.
The album’s second single and most succinct standout “To Strike With Secret Fang” pushes that unrelenting prowess to the next level. Out today via a new lyric video and streaming on all major platforms, the track blends low-end punishment with blackened death metal inspiration, rhythmic vocal mastery and brutal conviction.
Alongside the single, NILE has also announced its upcoming 2025 USA co-headline tour with death metal greats SIX FEET UNDER. The tour begins January 7, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee and will feature support from PSYCROPTIC and EMBRYONIC AUTOPSY.
Tickets for this unmissable onslaught go on sale this Friday, July 12 at 10:00 a.m. EDT. Pre-show meet-and-greets will also be available for both headliners.
NILE‘s Karl Sanders comments on the new track and tour announcement: “‘To Strike With Secret Fang’ is a straight-to-the-point, uptempo blasting venomous assassin’s blade of a metal song. It’s the shortest track off the new record, ‘The Underworld Awaits Us All’, which, of course, in NILE fashion has several longform complex metal compositions. But ‘Fang’ instantly goes right for the throat and will no doubt be a burner for live NILE shows.
“Speaking of, NILE is very pleased for the opportunity to once again share the stage with the guys in SIX FEET UNDER and PSYCROPTIC. We are also primed and ready to play some of the killer songs from the new NILE album for metal fans, as well as classic NILE tracks that have become live favorites over the years. We have no doubt that metal will take place!”
NILE and SIX FEET UNDER 2025 USA co-headlining “Revenge Of The Underworld” tour with PSYCROPTIC and EMBRYONIC AUTOPSY:
Jan. 07 – Nashville, TN @ Basement East
Jan. 08 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
Jan. 10 – Orlando, FL @ The Abbey
Jan. 11 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Culture Room
Jan. 12 – Tampa, FL @ Orpheum
Jan. 13 – Charleston, SC @ Music Farm
Jan. 14 – Greenville, SC @ Radio Room
Jan. 15 – Greensboro, NC @ Hangar 1819
Jan. 17 – Sayreville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom
Jan. 18 – Worcester, MA @ The Palladium Underground
Jan. 19 – Albany, NY @ Empire Live
Jan. 20 – Mechanicsburg, PA @ Lovedrafts
Jan. 21 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Preserving Underground
Jan. 23 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theater
Jan. 24 – Columbus, OH @ The King Of Clubs
Jan. 25 – Flint, MI @ Machine Shop
Jan. 26 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Elevation
Jan. 27 – Joliet, IL @ The Forge
Jan. 29 – St. Louis, MO @ Red Flag
Jan. 30 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogarts
Jan. 31 – Ft. Wayne, IN @ Piere’s
Feb. 01 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave
Feb. 02 – Minneapolis, MN @ Skyway Theater
Feb. 04 – Denver, CO @ Oriental Theater
Feb. 06 – Las Vegas, CA @ Sinwave
Feb. 07 – Santa Ana, CA @ Observatory
Feb. 08 – Roseville, CA @ Goldfield Roseville
Feb. 10 – Portland, OR @ Bossanova Ballroom
Feb. 11 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
Feb. 13 – Berkeley, CA @ Cornerstone
Feb. 14 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Catalyst
Feb. 15 – Los Angeles, CA @ 1720
Feb. 17 – Phoenix, AZ @ Nile Theater
Feb. 18 – Farmington, NM @ Lauter Haus
Feb. 20 – Dallas, TX @ Haltom Theater
Feb. 21 – Austin, TX @ Come And Take It Live
Feb. 22 – Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
Boasting airtight technicality and unrelenting brutality, “The Underworld Awaits Us All” pushes each member of NILE — founding mastermind/guitarist Karl Sanders, longtime drum master George Kollias, vocalist/guitarists Brian Kingsland and Zach Jeter, and bassist Dan Vadim Von — to their furthest extremes both in artistry and performance.
Once again produced and recorded at Sanders‘s own Serpent Headed Studios in Greenville, South Carolina, the band returned to “Vile Nilotic Rites” engineer Mark Lewis (CANNIBAL CORPSE, DYING FETUS, WHITECHAPEL) for mixing and mastering.
Facing the planet’s inevitable end with their diehard fans at their side, NILE waste absolutely no time with histrionics on “The Underworld Awaits Us All”, distilling their trademark Egyptology driven tempest down to its most streamlined essence. Charging into battle as its namesake depicts, “Stelae of Vultures” makes an immediate impact with dissonant guitar chords and supernatural drumming, teasing the auditory evisceration to come. Topped by impressive screams and gutturals, the track leads into “Chapter For Not Being Hung Upside Down On A Stake In The Underworld And Made To Eat Feces By The Four Apes”, citing the Egyptian Book Of The Dead’s 181st chapter. The album’s most succinct track, “To Strike with Secret Fang” blends low-end punishment with blackened death metal inspiration, before album standouts such as “Naqada II Enter the Golden Age” and “Overlords of the Black Earth” breathe new life with thrash and fusion experimentation, as well as real human choirs — adding a raw element to the NILE fold. Each track soars as a technical tour de force — featuring career-defining extreme drumming from Kollias, as well as razor-sharp soloing from all three active guitarists and palpable bass exploration. A perfect example of this equation is pinnacle burner “Under The Curse Of The One God”, combining sinister atmospherics with breakneck pacing and whirlwind, vicious riff acrobatics.
Throughout the remainder of its 11 pummeling tracks and intricate interludes, NILE masters full-tilt speed and ferocious musicality. 30 years into their heavy reign, “The Underworld Awaits Us All” proves that NILE is marching onward and undoubtedly upward, bleeding metal for their fandom for as long as the sands of time will allow.
Sanders says about the album: “We are very happy to be sharing with fans NILE‘s 10th album. We worked overtime making this record as killer as we could — because we sincerely felt fans deserved our best efforts. ‘The Underworld Awaits Us All’ — and we will see you there.”
“The Underworld Awaits Us All”‘s mind-bending art was once again envisioned and created by Michał “Xaay” Loranc, with reference to the cycle of life and judgment at its end.
“The Underworld Awaits Us All” track listing:
01. Stelae Of Vultures
02. Chapter For Not Being Hung Upside Down On A Stake In The Underworld And Made To Eat Feces By The Four Apes
03. To Strike With Secret Fang
04. Naqada II Enter The Golden Age
05. The Pentagrammathion Of Nephren-Ka
06. Overlords Of The Black Earth
07. Under The Curse Of The One God
09. Doctrine Of Last Things
10. True Gods Of The Desert
11. The Underworld Awaits Us All
12. Lament For The Destruction Of Time
NILE is:
Karl Sanders – Guitar, Vocals, Keyboards
George Kollias – Drums
Brian Kingsland – Guitar, Vocals
Zach Jeter – Guitar, Vocals
Dan Vadim Von – Bass
Photo credit: Casey Coscarelli
