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Nile | In Their Darkened Shrines

As astonishing as the pyramids themselves.
CD, Relapse/Suburban

Tekst: Brian McManus

Publicatiedatum: 30 november 2002

Nile must have hidden themselves deep in their sarcophagus and summoned all the powers of Ra to have gotten the creativity and ability to record such an amazing album. Straight from the get-go, Nile show a whole new (better) side of themselves. Don't get me wrong; They still have the same undeniable sound as before. However, this time around everything is much better and clearer. Their breed of Egyptian-fed death metal shines through on this album much better than on any of their previous albums.

From start to finish, In Their Darkened Shrines displays Nile's premier songwriting and execution. 'The Blessed Dead' leads off the album, and, right then and there, a picture of an Egyptian Pharaoh having his internal organs extracted and being prepared for mummification settles in the listener's head. Blasting their way through this song with Egyptian melodies and brutality, Nile leaves you very little time to get back to your inner-city reality before 'Execration Text' pulls you back into a sandstorm world of death and eternal undead. This trend doesn't stop throughout the entire album. Multi-climactic and never a dull moment. 'Sarcophagus,' 'Unas Slayer of the Gods,' and 'Wind Of Horus' show the absolute best of Nile, past or present.

Production-wise, this album is very satisfying At first, I thought it was flat and lacking a lot of bass. But the real truth is that it's time for me to get a better stereo, as it sounded many times better in my car. I'd consider my system to be better than average, so you may need to crank up the bass levels on your CD player, or turn the volume up really loud, to get the full effect of how excruciatingly crushing In Their Darkened Shrines really is. Even still, that's a minor setback, and the music overshadows this small flaw (I consider this a flaw, because you really should make sure the final mix of your CD sounds good in all CD players . . . expensive and inexpensive).

By far, what sets this album apart from just about every other metal album is its educational factor. No. Really! If you are new to ancient Egyptian culture, or if the lyrics simply aren't clear enough, each song has a couple of paragraphs giving you the inspiration and history behind the lyrics. Nile has spared no resource and refused to settle for anything less than greatness with In Their Darkened Shrines. Even the artwork is magnificent. In the background of the booklet are clear depictions of ancient carvings and hieroglyphs; the front cover has a wonderful morph of a snake and an ankh. The art is mostly green and black, possibly signifying creation and re-birth within death. Nonetheless, the green-tinted picture of the Great Pyramid of Giza within the booklet is one of the most haunting seen by these eyes.

In Their Darkened Shrines shows the best of Nile, and one can only hope it will not be the peak of their existence. Amongst the Catacombs of Nephran-Ka and Black Seeds of Vengeance were both great releases, but are overshadowed by In Their Darkened Shrines. As far as this world has seen, it is the greatest example of pyramid-core (hehehe) to date. What it all comes down to is that In Their Darkened Shrines is worth repeated listens . . . sometimes all in the same day. Something Nile has failed to produce before.