NILE - ANNIHILATION OF THE WICKED - RELAPSE
Heavy metal's leading Egyptologists are back with a new album which the band's proponents (of which there are many) will be happy to know does not let up on intensity. Furthermore, Annihilation Of The Wicked is the band's most linear album yet. The band is a tight death metal unit in both mid and fast gears which uses tight arrangements to bring home the falafel. The changes in line-up have not adversely affected the band, except perhaps there is little left of the band's Middle Eastern rhythms and interludes. The Egyptian or Arabic melodies are heard less of and are mostly consigned to intros. Instead, Nile is most analogous to Morbid Angel nowadays, in arrangement and in complexity, and given the latter band's relative stagnation is probably a better choice right now than the originators. It is almost effortless to be convinced by Nile as songs like the title track demonstrate. This is funny given how much effort the band puts into its music or into coming up with titles like Dusk Falls Upon The Temple Of The Serpent On The Mount Of Sunrise or Chapter Of Obeisance Before Giving Breath To The Inert One In The Presence Of The Crescent Shaped Horns. - Ali "The Metallian"