Nile - Annihilation Of The Wicked review
| Band: | Nile |
| Album: | Annihilation Of The Wicked |
| Style: | Brutal death metal, Technical death metal |
| Release date: | May 2005 |
01. Dusk Falls Upon The Temple Of The Serpent On The Mount Of Sunrise
02. Cast Down The Heretic
03. Sacrifice Unto Sebek
04. User-Maat-Re
05. The Burning Pits Of The Duat
06. Chapter Of Obeisance Before Giving Breath To The Inert One In The Presence Of The Crescent-Shaped Horns
07. Lashed To The Slave Stick
08. Spawn Of Uamenti
09. Annihilation Of The Wicked
10. Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten
11. Sss Haa Set Yoth [Japanese bonus]
What else can be said about Nile? They are far greater than the average death metal band with how they manage to successfully combine raw brutality and technicality with melodic and doomy elements, all topped off with an Egyptian theme. Annihilation Of The Wicked is no exception. If for some reason you haven't heard Nile before, you're in for a treat. With Annihilation Of The Wicked, Nile has taken what they had done before, and improved upon it in every way.
With this album, the band has taken a big step forward as far as production goes. It is a lot clearer than their older albums, yet not overproduced. It keeps that raw brutality that was present in Nile's previous work, and also enhances the melodic aspects. The musicianship is also excellent. George Kollias is an exceptionally talented drummer with feet like Gatling guns, pumping those pedals 100 miles and hour, while maintaining incredible precision and not missing a beat. The guitar work of Dallas Toler-Wade and Karl Sanders is great as far as composition and writing riffs goes, but a lot of the solos are, as always, lacking substance. (If you've seen their "Betcha Can't Play This" videos, you'll know what I mean.) However their vocals are phenomenal. Dallas has a very distinctive vocal style, being able to spit out rapid-fire lyrics while maintaining an extremely low, guttural growl.
The songwriting incorporates the Egyptian theme more than ever. The lyrical content focuses on the mythology and culture of ancient Egypt while mixing in gore by describing torture and violent situations in great detail. Karl Sanders has an extensive knowledge of Egyptian mythology and sets an aura of wisdom upon this album with the lyrics. The acoustic and doomy intros have a very atmospheric feel to them. The first one of these, "Dusk Falls Upon The Temple Of The Serpent On The Mount Of Sunrise" sets the tone for the album, while leading into a brutal assault known as "Cast Down The Heretic". A few songs on this album are rather long, which is unusual for death metal. However they are very epic and powerful, and won't leave you bored, or waiting for them to end and move on.
If you're a death metal fan looking for something different, by all means check out this album. It and all of Nile's other work is very unique and original, and is definitely something different. In 15-20 years, I can see this album being recognized as a piece of classic death metal like Death's Scream Bloody Gore, or Morbid Angel's Altars Of Madness are presently. Overall, this album is one of my favorites and I highly recommend it.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 10 |
| Originality: | 10 |
| Production: | 9 |
Written by danielllewis | 29.05.2009
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Rating:
9.0
9.0
|
Rating: 9.0 |
In such an over explored style like Death Metal it takes a really original and virtuous band to achieve success and project their name to the top of the fans' list of favourites right on their first album. But you just started to read a review about Nile, so you already know that they are unmatchable and dominate all their instruments with the most perfect chaotic precision; to expect the best is never a mistake. "Annihilation Of The Wicked" is their fourth strike, the follow up for the masterpiece "In Their Darkened Shrines", and, well, if there was a lot to be said about the past works there's probably even more to say about this one. Read more ›› |
Comments
Comments: 14
Visited by: 149 users
| Clintagräm Shrinebuilder Posts: 5772 From: USA  |
Being a fan, I'd say the rating is reasonable, though I probably would have rated it at a 9, but it's all subjective. You nailed it pretty well though. I though really enjoy the leads on this album. Not to mention, while overlooked, I think Karl's vocals are great and were lacking on their 2007 release. Good review.
---- The force will be with you, always.
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| Dangerboner Lactation Cnslt Posts: 7261 From: USA  |
Awesome album and nice review. But, I do disagree with the author saying that this album incorporates the Egyptian theme more than ever - I think the previous releases did more of that and this was as close as they got at that time to making a straight up death metal album.
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| Deadmeat Necrobutcher Posts: 2437 From: Greece  |
Nice review for a great album. But i am not sure if this one is going to stay in history... nile have been innovative also in the past..
---- Υou've sold your human essence to the cold world of dead and empty things... You're SOLD!
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| Deadmeat Necrobutcher Posts: 2437 From: Greece |
Written by Guest on 30.05.2009 at 23:53 a guest review is a review writen by a non staff person.
---- Υou've sold your human essence to the cold world of dead and empty things... You're SOLD!
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| Deadmeat Necrobutcher Posts: 2437 From: Greece |
Written by Guest on 03.06.2009 at 00:00 yeah i've seen it and i guess it happens cause this is not an album but a documentary...
---- Υou've sold your human essence to the cold world of dead and empty things... You're SOLD!
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| Vikingocalypse; Account deleted |
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| Uirapuru Liver Failure Posts: 2955 From: Brazil  |
Quote: That is right. User-Maat-Re was the only song that bored me a little. But the other long songs are excellent. ''Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten'' rules 
----  ---- member of the true crusade against old school heavy metal, early 80s thrash, NWOBHM, traditional doom, first and second wave black metal, old school death metal, US power metal, 70s prog rock and atmospheric doomsludgestoner. o/
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| Deadmeat Necrobutcher Posts: 2437 From: Greece |
Written by Uirapuru on 06.06.2009 at 21:59 i agree about User-Maat-Re... it is a bit boring...
---- Υou've sold your human essence to the cold world of dead and empty things... You're SOLD!
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| Ellrohir Heaven Knight Posts: 8662 From: Czech Republic  |
I started with this one...and it really got me into Nile... 
---- My rest seems now calm and deep Finally I got my dead man sleep 
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| INÆRIS Posts: 204 From: USA  |
So brutal! I love this album!!! And I also love how Karl Sanders is such an Egyptian history buff
---- Still Life, Still Death
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