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Review: Nile, Marble Factory
Technical death metal is a tricky bugger to pull off successfully. As with black metal, the muddier, lo-fi form permits all manner of incompetence to be concealed in the mix. But when you’re aiming for clarity, there’s nowhere to hide. On record, there’s also the danger that it can sound rather thin and clinical – a problem that has afflicted tonight’s headliners in the past.
Long Island’s Suffocation are new to this reviewer, even though they’ve been going since 1988. Uniquely in metal – and possibly every other genre – they have a ‘touring vocalist’, Ricky Myers, taking the place of Frank Mullen, who does all the shouting in the studio. This unusual arrangement certainly seems to work for them. But rather like Slayer’s Tom Araya, Myers’ polite speaking voice contrasts amusingly with the deep guttural bellow he contributes to the band’s appropriately brutal yet impressively precise music. Given their vintage, it’s perhaps not surprising that there’s more than a hint of thrash in the likes of Mass Obliteration. The packed audience lap up this controlled display of power and aggression, especially when it comes to such crowd-pleasers as Effigy of the Forgotten.
Much farting about with Karl Sanders’ expensive guitar rig delays the arrival of Nile, but they prove well worth the wait, putting an epic, widescreen, Egyptology-fixated sheen on this most brutal of musical forms. Complex, furiously paced and technically flawless, their sarcophagus-rattling sonic palette is broadened by judicious, never overwhelming use of samples and three distinct vocalists, with Sanders handling the low-end grunts while fellow guitarist Dallas Toler-Wade delivers the growling. Occasional three-part chants are so impressive that you can’t help wishing they did more of them. The Howling of the Jinn from Nile’s debut Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ra more than lives up to the promise of its title, while Hittite Dung Incantation remains their finest song title. Three newies from What Should Not Be Unearthed are unleashed, each being greeted like old friends, with Evil to Cast Out Evil offering a rare opportunity for a jolly singalong. This is a genre characterised by its po-facedness, but Nile’s wide grins betray just how much they’re enjoying themselves onstage, not least when traditional set-closer Black Seeds of Vengeance inspires a furious mosh eruption.
is needed now More than ever
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