Customer Reviews

Those Whom the Gods Detest

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Interestingly, Nile's new album came out the same day as Slayer's new World Painted Blood. I had pre-ordered both and was excited for the dual-release day! Having been a Slayer fan for more than two decades, I have to say I was most excited about their release. However, after the first listen, I am far more impressed with Nile's newest work!

Nile continues to broaden their scope and deepen their skill with each release. Those Whom the Gods Detest blazes as fast as any Nile album to date while somehow adding more. Vocal ranges have improved, the lyrics are fascinating, and I detect additional instruments beyond their norm. The notes even explain the history and meaning behind every song.

If you're a metal fan and you're only buying one new album this month, choose Nile over Slayer (Araya forgive me).

This album showcases Nile's jaw-dropping technical prowess with excellent production values that deliver snap and crunch without a trace of murk. Nile's riffs are like a movie whose frames pass too fast to distinguish the gaps between them, creating a seamless fractal whole out of tiny fragments.

I disagree with the reviewer who said the songs show less dynamic range than earlier releases as well as the notion that they have abandoned their trademark exotica. Instead, I felt the dynamics were better-integrated into the song and album structure, as were the sounds of evil pharaohs groaning and banging gongs. Five stars and I'm definitely going to catch them in Seattle in January at El Corazon.

The new Nile album is a stellar work, with stunning production values that only enhance the overall product. Karl Sanders' liner notes are back and they provide an insight on where these ideas come from and show a great sense of humor as well. Only Nile fans are likely to read these reviews and so to them, I say that you will absolutely love this album. The vocals, guitar tones and drumming are so far beyond the curve for most music, and on this album the bass presents itself as never before. This reviewer's favorite album of the year, followed closely by Behemoth's Evangelion and Mastodon's Crack the Skye.

Buy this album.

In order to explain the problem with the "Those Whom the Gods Detest" album, I feel compelled to go backwards and look at the bands progression. Plenty of us became aware of Nile when the "In their Darkened Shrines" was released. As plenty of Nile fans still remember, this cd was a wild one. Wade and Sanders shredded their guitars in a way that created an almost indecipherable wall of buzzing sound. While some of their songs fit this description, "Kheftiu Asar Butchiu" for example, a few slower paced tracks like, "Sarcophagus" stood out to show the fans an alternative direction for the band.

"In their Darkened Shrines" marked a point in the bands career where Nile began to mature, putting aside sheer speed and brutality for tracks with more listenability.
The band's next two albums illustrated this perfectly, pushing thematic and egyptian elements to the front of their sound. Even though plenty of the tracks were still blindingly fast, they retained a quality that kept the listener's ability to keep a steady headbang to the rhythm. Check out Burning Pits of Duat, the Annihilation of the Wicked track, Eat of the Dead, or Even the Gods Must Die.

Since the Ithyllphalic album was released, I couldn't wait for more once I heard that the "Those Whom.." album was being released, but once I heard it, I was a bit disappointed. The problem with the album once I listened two it, was that it did not follow the same path as the previous two albums! It resembles Nile at a younger, less selective point in their career of more technicality, more buzz, more brutality and less melody.

On a different note, I must admit that this cd has the best production I've heard from this band to date. Each note note from every instrument is sharp and discernible, but that doesn't distract from the fact that some of the album's melodies are just plain weird (and not in a dissonant good way), the chorus of the album's title track is sung HORRIBLY, and the middle eastern singing excerpts are installed in just the worst way. Aside from that, this is still Nile.

The interludes from Sanders are plentiful and are some of the band's best, although in my opinion they don't mix well with the main track. I believe that Sanders got his fill of thematic acoustic style music and decided to focus mainly on the albums rougher sounds rather than creating brooding melodies shared by the interludes and the main track (thus creating a more magical mesh).

Aside from all the lows I pointed out, some of the albums tracks are truely unforgetable! Tracks like, "Permitting the dead... and Iskander D'hul Kernon " stand as purely epic and BEYOND AMAZING! (Better than anything on the previous cd!) And yes, like the rest of the albums, this one gets better the more you listen to it. Although the entire album wasn't as good as Ithyllphalic (from start to finish) it is more than worthy of a full listen.

For a band that touts itself as extreme metal with a focus on technical riffing, it seems like every Nile album I've heard has been a surprisingly muddy and/or thin, poorly produced mess. But this album sounds amazing. After collecting the past few Nile albums, I didn't really care that much about this upcoming release, until it leaked and people started saying it had good production. Then I listened to a new song on their myspace page and it blew me away. FINALLY, Nile has released an album with production values worthy of their insane technicality. If you have ever been interested in Nile, but didn't enjoy putting on head phones and straining to hear each instrument, get this album! Some other reviews say that this sounds like Nile, and we've heard it before and all that, but I own three of their albums and I can honestly say this is the first time I've ever really HEARD them. They are freaking amazing. This music gets so crazy in parts, you're brain can't keep up with it and you go into that delightful metal stupor. And if you're a musician, it makes you want to throw all your equipment in the trash and never play again. I mean, what can you do that's technically better than this? Also, the liner notes are great. Having each song explained adds a whole other layer that you may not have picked up on without them. Fantastic album, if you've read this far and your interest is piqued, go get it now!

Nile is one of those rare bands that never ceases to amaze me. Now six full-length albums into their career, the band only continues to evolve. Their uncanny ability to bring together technicality and progressiveness while still being just as brutal as anyone is unsurpassed.

Upon first listen, this album feels similar to 2005's Annihilation of the Wicked. After further listens though, it becomes apparent that this album really showcases elements from everything the band has released. Whether its the intro to "Kem Khefa Khesef," which sounds like it could have come from Black Seeds of Vengeance, or the beginning guitar melody at the 1:33 mark in "Permitting the Noble Dead to Descend to the Underworld," which could have been on their previous album, Ithyphallic, Nile is all over the map here; and that is a good thing! The chorus of the title track and songs such as "The Eye of Ra" show some new sounds for Nile as well. As is characteristic of Nile, there are tempo and dynamic changes galore. The atmosphere is present in this album as well, and Karl Sanders continues to show us his fondness for instruments other than the electric guitar.

Besides their trademark epic sounds and Egyptian-influenced style, this album contains some new Middle Eastern influences and some big, multi-vocal choruses. I was not sure that Nile could make their music any more epic, but choruses like those in the aforementioned title track and the end of "4th Arra of Dagon" do just that. I hope to see that stay as part of their sound.

Production-wise, this is the band's best to date. With their extreme, technical playing, one thing I have always found unfortunate is that the production was often too murky to easily hear it. This has steadily improved since Annihilation of the Wicked, but this is the first album where it seems that they have fully captured the sound. The guitars are up front on this album, the drums are tight, and the vocals and bass fit nicely. While there are limits, I would be interested to see what re-mixing and re-mastering their previous albums, especially their early ones, could do for them.

Nile is in top form here, and they continue to improve and evolve. Dallas Toller-Wade has varied his vocals even more. One need only to hear the intro drumming on "Hittite Dung Incantation" to know that George Kollias is one of the best in the business. Karl Sanders continues to make his guitar wale like no one else, and its great to hear him doing more of those super guttural vocals after largely backing off of it on the last couple of albums. His liner notes also make a return here. I've always enjoyed reading those, as I feel they add another dimension to the song.

As their fans (myself included) like to say, "There's death metal. And then there's Nile."

After "Ithyphalic" dropped two years ago I thought to myself, "Well, this is the beginning of the end for Nile, at least they released 4 great albums." You can make that 5 great albums. "Those Whom the Gods Detest" comes out firing like the band has rediscovered the creativity that spawned them to begin with. Interesting arrangements and vocal layering are abundant and make tracks that seem like standard Nile, sound so innovative and expansive. "Ithyphalic" had many problems, too many to nit pick in this review. "Those..." addresses all those problems and ups the ante by being so developed and mature. Think the gut-punching force of "Annihilation of the Wicked", plus the early experimentalism and doom of "Black seeds of Vengeance", let the combination mature and age, and you have Nile's new album. Warning!:!You will not be able to stop headbanging!

As most people have said i think this album is the follow up to the 2005 AOTW. Ithyphallic wasn't a bad album but i felt it was too watered down compared to thier other releases but i always have the outlook of some people will get into Nile after hearing that album.

But i think what this album sets above the rest for one it has exeptional quality, although thier other releases were not that bad either. This one has more to offer though, the sound is fuller & i like the new little things they added here & there that were not in the other releases.

To start off, the new album is great, it's awesome! To me, this album starts wher "Annihilation of the wicked" left off. There is nothing realy ground breaking or anything you have'nt heard before. Like I said, it sounds like a continuation of "Annihilation" and thats not a bad thing!
They do sound a bit more mature( in a good way ) And they are on point with every song.
I still like "Ithyphallic" (the album before this one) better, it's diverse from the other albums. That album realy stands out.
Over all, this album is good, nothing new, but still one of the best releases of '09

Gotta say the new Nile, is definitely one of the best cd's of 2009. The band gets better and better. Loved Ithiophallic. but that suffered from a very flat production. The new Nile cd boast a thick production and thanks to Eric Rutan the drum sound is by far the best sound they have achieved. the production on this reminds me of 'In their darkened Shrines', all instruments are heard clearly and this is super brutal stuff. The band experiment with female vocals, chanting, more middle eastern instruments and the result is an epic album. I think Nile are like one of the only super brutal death metal bands that can make 10 minute songs on a consistent basis not sound boring. Their is so much going on, that thanks to a superior production you can take it all in and it does not sound muddy. I think the band upped the ante in the brutal dept., did not think they could achieve it, but they did it. All the tracks are super killer, just pick this up. If you never liked Nile, well than just stay clear of this, this is essentially the same band, just more mature and brutal. Glad they brought back the liner notes, I felt like I was getting a history lesson reading it. CRUSHING!!!!!!!