Nile Say Sixth Album Most Intense

It’s the most anticipated death metal album of the year and Florida metallers Nile are definitely feeling the pressure. The brutal technical death metal trio have just finished recording their sixth full-length album, Those Whom the Gods Detest, which will see release in November under Nuclear Blast Records.

The band hit Mana Studios in Florida in May to begin the recording process with producer Neil Kernon (Cannibal Corpse, Judas Priest) with Hate Eternal frontman Eric Rutan, who also owns the studio, filling in for engineer duties. With a gruelling 12-14 hour schedule every day, the band ”“ vocalist and guitarist Karl Sanders, bassist Dallas Toler-Wade and drummer George Kollias ”“ pushed themselves to the brink of exhaustion to complete the album. “This time, the songs were so complicated that we got burned, I mean completely. We had a board in the studio keeping notes and counting measures, notes and more notes everywhere, on the board or on my floor toms, even on some huge papers Karl got for us; there were times when I was playing by reading my transcription on the paper!” laughs Kollias who practically drummed himself into ill-health during the recording, much to the annoyance of Sanders. “George is notorious for not taking care of himself during the Nile recordings. He is not very fond of the food we have in America [Kollias lives in Greece], and so he pretty much skips feeding himself,” grouses Sanders. “So, George ends up exhausted, sick, mentally worn down and plagued with injuries. This time it was his calf muscle, and he was barely able to walk, let alone play death metal drums.” But Sanders admits they couldn’t have done it without the commitment shown by the rest of the band members. “I cannot get angry with George ”“ his dedication and willingness to make hard sacrifices for metal and for Nile is second to none. I just hate to see him suffer,” he says a tad sentimentally.

Much of the album was composed long distance, with Sanders and Toler-Wade recording scratch demos with click tracks in their home studios in the US and e-mailing them to Kollias in Greece for him to work out the drum parts. After Kollias came down to Florida for final rehearsals, all the individual parts were worked out and arrangements solidified. Kollias admits it’s not always easy. “Nile works as a unit, but you will never ever have three people talking exactly the same language in music,” he muses. “I’ve played guitar for 24 years now, Dallas is one of the best drummers I know and Karl is the best drum composer, even though he doesn’t play drums. This means we have opinions on every instrument but they’re honest opinions and always for the best of the music.” And in keeping with the theme of Nile’s previous albums, this one too tackles religious ideologies and conflict. “It’s classic rebellion, summed up best in the line from the title track: ”˜I am counted amongst legions of the unrighteous who dread not being immersed in pits of fire.’ It very effectively captures the theme of ”˜None of us in any way fear any sort of silly divine retribution, so fuck off.’ And to my way of thinking, that is the essence of the communal spirit of defiance I always loved about metal in general,” says Sanders. “This album is by far our most intense. Expect to be mercilessly crushed.”

Also in the offing for the band is an India trip in October as part of their album promotion tour, but it’s still tentative right now. “We’re in talks about doing a show mid-October in India and we’re really excited about it. It should all work out soon,” confirms Sanders. So if you do catch Nile bringing down the house in your city next month, don’t forget you heard it here first.