Everybody together now: “Anoint my phallus with the blood of the FALLEN!!” With that quaint lyric, South Carolina’s Nile officially takes cock-rock to an all-new level. Possible latent menstruation envy aside, you gotta give Nile leader Karl Sanders credit for sticking to his, uh, guns, because straight-ahead death metal with just one theme — ancient Egyptian mythology — should by all rights have worn out its welcome and run itself into the ground long ago. Instead, Sanders and company only seem to grow more determined and single-minded with each passing year. In fact, he says Nile’s latest album, Ithyphallic — named after those miniature statues with disproportionately large penises – represents an in-your-face statement of the band’s intent to keep on chugging. And chug it does. Nile indulges no pretenses whatsoever about what its music is: growling, hailstorm drums and manic riffs coming at you with blinding speed and furious technical proficiency in the vein of classic Morbid Angel and Suffocation. Sanders, who was present when death metal first reared its hideous head, still carries the torch with pride. Furthermore, few can match his penchant for voluminous and howlingly fun liner notes.
This article appears in Mar 13-19, 2008.