NILE – What Should Not Be Unearthed

Nile – What Should Not Be Unearthed (2015, Nuclear Blast)

To state that I am a fan of the Ancient Egypt themed Technical Death Metal band Nile would be an understatement. For more than fifteen years I’ve spined each and every one of their albums endlessly. Trying to play them on the drums, as a soundtrack to my many hours on a snowboard and skateboard. And in the spring of 2014 I finally had the luck to watch them live in my hometown. I was in trance for the whole show and knew every song, every riff, and every drum combo.

Every new album they produce makes me wish and wait for great things. With the precedent At the Gate of Sethu, I was almost immediately sold and I loved the more organic and analog sound of the whole thing. Despite less epic moments than with In Their Darkened Shrines it was a solid and constant album.

Now, Nile had to please the naysayer of the AtGoS with some kind of a redemption album. What Should Not Be Unearthed is that album. An album that sounds like it is already shadowed by the great foundations of their Giza Necropolis. It is now almost impossible to top that and they have been robbed by many following bands.

With all this Ancient Egypt frail metaphor, WSNBU is an album I gave myself lots of time to listen, get back to it and digest. It is still Nile, but it lacks the extra layer that elevates them over the vast offer of Technical Death Metal bands. A genre that has been flooded since the early 1980’s.

Even George Kollias’ release of this summer was still another album within all the others. Good but not great. Still listenable but if I feel like listening to some Nile I would be more inclined to put Annihilation of the Wicked or Those Whom the Gods Detest. And I guess this sums everything I think about this album.

6.0