Nile

Live at the Whisky a Go Go

Los Angeles, CA

May 17th, 2018

Review and photos by Travis Baumann

Nile, the long-running death metal legends out of South Carolina, return to Los Angeles on the "From the Amazon to the Nile Tour" with Brazilian tour-mates Soulfly.

Hitting upon their 25th anniversary since their inception, they were going to give the Whisky a Go Go a set filled with old favorites as well as a nice dose of material from their latest offerings as well.  

Nile is based around the ideas and talents of Karl Sanders and his obsession with the dark mythological past of ancient Egypt as well as their rites of mysticism and religion. Joining him on stage are George Kollias on drums, Brad Parris on bass guitar, and Brian Kingsland on guitar.

In a normal band, Karl would be considered the lead singer but Nile takes the live vocals to an extreme with all three men on stringed instruments sharing vocals duties. Their voices at times raised in unison, others the lyrical output will bound back and forth from one member to the other, providing a trinity of differing vocals that really adds to the brutal punch from the guitar onslaught.

They started off the set with an introductory passage of epic keyboards that set the tone. The moment the band took their places they exploded into a song from their debut, "Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka" with the pummeling, "Ramses Bringer of War".

"Sacrifice Unto Sebek" from "Annihilation of the Wicked" kept the crowd in a frenzied circle-pit, much more than the Whisky could actually handle and the security had to weigh in to try manage the size of the growing vortex.

"Black Seeds of Vengeance" is definitely one of their fans' favorite albums and when they hit upon "The Black Flame" from this release the crowd renewed their efforts, spilling concert goes out of the designated areas of the club, unperturbed by the staff's efforts to control them.

Sticking with this album for another crowd pleaser, "Defiling the Gates of Ishtar" maintained the relentless energy levels. Karl had a big smile on his face as people chanted both the band's name as well as his. He said that the fans were the best thing about playing in a band and that Nile had the best fans in the world.

One of my personal favorites was up next with "Kafir!" from "Those Whom the Gods Detest". All three men sang in unison when it hit the chorus: "There is no God but God! There is no God but the one true God! There is no God! There is no God! O Mankind, Worship the God whom though hast created!"

The last album that Nile put out was the awesome "What Should Not Be Unearthed" from 2015. They treated us to three in a row from this beast with "Call to Destruction" followed by "In The Name of Amun" and the powerful title track which shows some Lovecraftian influences injected into the mythos.

This next song has always been a favorite of mine but the way they performed it tonight was more powerful than I remember it ever being. "The Fiends Who Come To Steal the Magick of the Deceased" comes from the "At the Gate of Sethu" album, and has all the signature elements of Nile. In addition to the blazing guitar work, bombastic drumming, and triple threat guttural growling, they added moments of clean male choral vocals that really raised the impact of the song. This was definitely a highlight of the show for me on this evening.

Returning to their roots they hit up "Sarcophagus" from "In Their Darkened Shrines" before closing out the night with what seems to be everyone's favorite Nile song of all time, "Black Seeds of Vengeance". The entire crowd had their fists in the air and sang along to the final chant of the song's title "Black Seeds of Vengeance!"

It was great to see Nile once again, they always put on an amazing show and in many ways this was one of my favorite performances I have seen from them. They did a perfect mix of old classics from their early days with the awesome stuff they put out just a few years ago. I am definitely looking forward to a new album from them in the future and whenever they tour, I will be there. Kafir!

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