Written by:	Nejde
Published:	April 16, 2023
Event:	Nile: Vile Nilotic Rites European Tour 2023
Location:	Umeå Folkets Hus, Umeå, Sweden

The last six months, Umeå has been spoiled with great metal of all sorts. In November, we had Mgła, Ulcerate and Sisyphean visiting. In December, it was Northern Rockfest with Clawfinger, Evergrey and Scar Symmetry to name a few. In February, Skraeckoedlan did a pub gig, and in March there was the Outbreak Festival with Ereb Altor headlining. Last weekend, Meshuggah, The Halo Effect, Orbit Culture and Scar Symmetry did a show that you can read about here, and this weekend might be the most hectic one. This review will cover Nile's Friday show. Saturday offers HammerFall (which I won't be attending) and on Sunday the legendary W.A.S.P. will take the stage (which I will be attending). In other words, Umeå is a pretty great place, although way up in the north of Sweden, to experience great metal live.

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After all that name-dropping, “How was the show?” you may ask. Well, it started off with a beer per usual before Vapor took the stage. This is a Californian thrash metal band that has been around since 2004 according to their official homepage and up until the pandemic they went by the name VX36. Although I've never heard of them before, they seem to be quite renowned, having toured with Onslaught, Artillery, Goatwhore, Destruction and Nervosa over the years and now Nile of course. They played pretty straight forward thrash of the headbang-friendly kind which set the mood of the crowd for things to come. A solid opener, in other words. If you're a fan of the genre, this band is worth checking out.





Next up was the best discovery I've made in a long time, Swiss death metallers Omophagia. How I've never heard of them before is a big mystery because this was top-notch, fast as hell modern death metal. The sound was super clean, and you could easily distinguish all instruments and the vocalist without anyone overpowering the others. I was especially impressed with the drummer, who was like a machine and after 45 minutes wasn't even sweating. Afterwards I got to talk to one of the guitarists, a super nice guy called Henrique, and asked him about the band and their music. They formed in 2007 and have four albums under their belt, the latest one released last year. I told him how impressed I was by their skills, to which he responded that during the song “646965” (which is binary code for “die” and the name of their third album), the clicker they have to set the pace was at 300 bpm instead of 280 bpm. So yeah, they play pretty damn fast. And I'm only gonna say this once, you're pretty damn stupid to not check this band out.





Let's move on to the band that really doesn't need an introduction, the mighty Nile. For those of you who still are unfamiliar with this legendary band, they are the definition of brutality and technicality in perfect symbiosis. Led by the charismatic Karl Sanders since their inception in 1993, he is the mastermind behind the ancient Egyptian theme which is the trademark of their music. On drums, we have one of the most revered drummers alive, George Kollias, who also happens to be one of the fastest too. After the departure of long-time member Dallas Toler-Wade in 2017, Brian Kingsland took over guitar and vocal duties, although absent during this tour. His replacement, Scott Eames, current singer of Vital Remains, did an excellent job delivering some really nasty growls in contrast to Sanders' deeper ones. Together with Kollias' furious drumming and Julian David Guillen's bass, we got an onslaught of pummelling death metal for over an hour, almost overloading one's senses. The only negative thing was a technical issue while playing “Annihilation Of The Wicked” which made them skip it and play it later during the set instead. To wrap things up, they unleashed the fan favourite “Black Seeds Of Vengeance”, resulting in the most intense moshing of the evening.

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The evening truly was a blast, and to actually get to see Nile in my hometown was a surreal experience in every positive way. In addition, Vapor was a nice discovery, but Omophagia was the big exclamation mark here. They also said that they really enjoy touring in Sweden, as it was their first time here. So hopefully they'll be back in the not too distant future. As for Nile, I can cross them off my bucket list of bands I want to experience live before I die.