American death metal icons NILE will finally drop their highly anticipated tenth album, “The Underworld Awaits Us All”, this Friday, August 23 via Napalm Records. In celebration of this week’s album release, the band has unleashed their third single – pinnacle burner “Under The Curse Of The One God”. Accompanied by a hypnotic lyric video, the track combines sinister atmospherics with breakneck pacing and vicious riff acrobatics, soaring as a technical tour-de-force with career-defining drumming from George Kollias.
NILE‘s Karl Sanders comments on the new track and lyric video: “We are really happy that fans will finally have a chance to hear ‘Under The Curse Of The One God’. It’s a ferocious and brutal NILE track, steeped in Ancient Curses. Many thanks to Ingo Sporl for once again wielding his uniquely creative visual artistry to help bring our music to blasphemous life.”
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.
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 recently announced a full European tour for September 2024, followed by a Japan tour in October 2024. The band was also just confirmed for Maryland Deathfest 2025, and will make two festival appearances this summer.
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.
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