NILE — Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka (review)

NILE — Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka album cover Album · 1998 · Brutal Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka" is the debut full-length studio album by US death metal act Nile. The album was released through Relapse Records in April 1998. Nile had put out a couple of minor releases before this one, but "Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka" really put them on the extreme metal map and being released through Relapse Records ensured marketing and distribution to potential listeners, that they hadn´t reached before.

The music on the album is brutal and technically well played US death metal. Quite a few of the early- to mid nineties US death metal bands had a technical twist to their songwriting and performance but Nile take it a step further. They are still rather atmospheric though and quite unique sounding too. The lyrical themes evolve around H. P. Lovecraft influenced themes and ancient Egypt/middle eastern themes.

The musicianship is excellent. These guys are tight and play both blast beats and crushingly doomy sections with conviction and great skill. The occasional use of keyboards work well as variation and atmosphere enhancers, but never rob the powerful brutal music of rawness. The vocals vary between deep growling and some more aggressive growling types. Just as the case is with the instrumental delivery of the music the growling vocals are delivered with both passion and conviction.

The quality of the tracks is generally high, and even though the sound production can´t match the sound productions on later releases by the band, it´s still decent and you are fully able to hear everything that´s going on. To my ears it is a slight issue though and the sound production do prevent the music on "Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka" to shine as much as it probably could have with a more powerful sound production. Still a 3.5 star (70%) rating is fully deserved and "Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka" is overall a great debut album release by Nile.
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