Nile
What Should Not Be Unearthed

A classic Nile release that every fan should own. The production is much better than Gates of Sethu, but still not as crisp and clear as I would like. With that said, this is classic Nile. You can't go wrong!

I completely disagree with the definition of this album as technical death metal. “What Should Not Be Unearthed” is, of course, a death metal, and also a technical one, oh yes, but mastering the instruments here is not akin to the bodybuilder’s muscles, which he himself admires most when he looks in the mirror - this is again the skill necessary for music, but not an end in itself. The sophisticated Exercises on Unearthed were so diminished that Karl Sanders even used the word “anti-technicality” in an interview - he was disingenuous, of course, and yet a fact: this is Nile’s meatiest album in their entire career. Immediately after entering Unearthed, comparisons rained down on Annihilation of the Wicked, but I’ll say more: American Egyptologists have not been so straightforward since Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka! Finding themselves in an evolutionary impasse, Nile clearly relied on the availability of music: there is much less epicism, there is no academic super-skill “At The Gates of Sethu” - there is a frenzied death metal with fat guitars. Many riffs in the context of the group’s work almost deserve the definition of “primitive”, but coupled with slam slowdowns, the lobsters at the concert will take them with a bang. Of course, there is a proprietary “oriental” melody and furious cuts, and in some places even viscous motifs in the spirit of “Ithyphallic” appear, but this time Nile leaves no room for doubts that they play brutal death. The sound about which so many copies break every album is rhino-laden and aggressive, only losing a little cleanliness: the usual super-high-speed rumble of the Collias battery is buried under the guitar mass. Traditional atmospheric instrumental, short ambient inserts and even chanting are also present, but no more than as decorations and moments of relaxation. Did Sanders and his colleagues end up with something breakthrough or a masterpiece? In no way: the innovations are enough not to call the album self-plagiarism, but, in general, there is nothing here that Nile did not become famous for more than a decade ago. But this does not make the album bad, for example, I really liked Liber Stellae Rubeae, which perfectly combines traditionally fast and technical parts with kachem, In the Name of Amun and To Walk Forth From Flames Unscathed, where most of Egypt in guitar motifs. In general, it is quite worthy. So listen, just remember to turn up the sound louder and drop the nostalgic dreams of a masterpiece ...