THE NEW FACE OF DEATH
As nu metal took over the airwaves, it looked like death metal would get left behind. Then Nile released Black Seeds Of Vengeance, dragging the scene into the 21st century
WORDS: CHRIS CHANTLER
PRESS/A.SOLCA
As metal’s ‘nu’ millennium dawned, a certain breed of headbanger was feeling both alienated by mainstream trends, and dispirited by death and black metal scenes well past their prime. We’d already praised Ra for South Carolina’s Egyptophile death cult Nile after their stellar 1998 debut, Amongst The Catacombs Of Nephren-Ka, supported with relentless touring and fearsome word of mouth. Hopes and expectations were high, but when Black Seeds Of Vengeance exploded in the autumn of 2000 and we were flayed to the wall by its obsessive brute force, finally, death metal had a new scene leader. For Karl Sanders, Nile’s chief songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, guiding light and sole surviving founder member, it wasn’t just vindication for years of struggle, sacrifice and commitment, but also for the highly fraught process of making the LP itself.
Karl Sanders: purveyor of jaw-dropping intensity
PRESS/B. PEELE
“Nothing went to plan on that record,” Karl intones, in a sedate but cultured Deep South drawl, when Hammer interrupts him putting new riffs to new lyrics in his home studio. Occasionally, endearingly, he punctuates the end of a sentence by idly strumming a chord on an unplugged guitar. “We had spent many long months rehearsing the songs, and we were really over-touring, playing our hearts out, because this was our freaking chance, finally. After a decade trapped in South Carolina we were hungry, so we were playing our asses off.”