Formed in 1993 by Karl Sanders (guitar/vocals), Chief Spires (bass/vocals), and Pete Hammoura (drums), NILE soon started combining their interest in Egyptian history, culture and lore with the ferocity of modern death metal. Using a symphonic approach to song writing and arrangement, NILE unleashed an uncompromising attack that fused technical death metal with organic Middle Eastern tones. Their unique lyrical bias was inspired by Sander’s interpretation of ancient Egyptian inscriptions, temple carvings, papyri, hieroglyphics and tomb paintings depicting ancient battles, rituals and religious ceremonies.
In this vein, after Dallas Toler-Wade had come aboard in 1996, the band created numerous soon-to-be technical death metal classics such as their 1996-debut “Amongst The Catacombs Of Nephren-Ka", the hugely successful follow-up "Black Seeds Of Vengeance" (“album of the year” 2000 in Terrorizer magazine) and the 2002-release "In Their Darkened Shrines". Three years after that “Annihilation Of The Wicked" marked another milestone in NILE’s carreer by entering the Swedish album charts at an incredible rank 27! The following addition of drumming sensation George Kollias strengthened an already stellar line-up of musicians.
2007 marked the release of the band’s fifth studio album, "Ithyphallic" which was at the same time their Nuclear Blast debut and invaded the charts all around the world, including German album charts at # 76 and the U.S. billboard charts at # 162. NILE’s last sign of life was shown in 2009 with the release of another masterstroke entitled “Those Whom The Gods Detest”.
In summer 2012, NILE will guide you down into the depths of their ominous catacombs to torture your souls with the darkest tunes in a long time! As far as the sound is concerned, “At The Gate Of Sethu” can be considered a return to the era of “Amongst The Catacombs Of Nephren-Ka” and “In Their Darkened Shrines” with main man Karl Sanders delivering the most evil vocals of his entire career, while his sidekicks are creating massive sound walls of pure dooming, nightmarish atmosphere around you, from which you can’t escape. Overall “At The Gate Of Sethu” was created true to a credo that Karl sums up with the words: “We’re following a high and pure purpose – creating music in order to plant evil emotions into the hearts, brains and ears of our listeners!”
Mission accomplished!
