Nile is an American

death metal Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...

band from

Greenville, South Carolina Greenville (; locally ) is a city in and the seat of Greenville County, South Carolina, United States. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 census, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. Greenville is located approximately halfway be ...

, formed in 1993. The band's current lineup consists of

Karl Sanders Karl Sanders (born June 5, 1963) is an American singer and guitarist, most widely known as the founding member of the ancient Egyptian-themed technical death metal band Nile. Early life Before creating Nile, Sanders was in a thrash metal ...

(guitars, vocals), George Kollias (drums), Brian Kingsland (guitars, vocals), and Scott Eames (guitars, vocals). The band is known for their dedicated lyrical and musical styles inspired by

Egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...

and works of H.P. Lovecraft. Since its formation, the band has released nine

studio albums An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

, two compilations, three extended plays, two

demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * plural for Demo (computer programming) ...

, three

singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

, and five

music videos A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

. Their latest studio album, ''

Vile Nilotic Rites ''Vile Nilotic Rites'' is the ninth studio album by American technical death metal band Nile, released through Nuclear Blast on November 1, 2019. It is the band's only album with bassist/vocalist Brad Parris and first with guitarist/vocalist Brian ...

'', was released on November 1, 2019, through

Nuclear Blast Nuclear Blast is a record label and mail order record distributor with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. The label was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Germany. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label mov ...

History

1990s

Nile formed in Greenville, South Carolina in 1993 from a previous band called Morriah, in which founding member

performed in since the 1980s. The name of this band was taken from the

Nile river The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest rive ...

. Nile released a self-titled thrash-influenced demo in 1994 (re-issued in 2011 under the title ''Worship the Animal - 1994: The Lost Recordings'').Harris, Chris. gunshyassassin.com. August 4, 2011. Retrieved on August 5, 2011. Sanders, vocalist/bassist Chief Spires and drummer Pete Hammoura released the ''

Festivals of Atonement ''In The Beginning'' is a compilation by death metal band Nile, released in 2000 through Relapse Records. The compilation combines their two EPs ''Festivals of Atonement'' and ''Ramses Bringer of War'' in their entirety, previously released on ...

'' EP in 1995, leading Nile to a southwestern tour in support of other metal acts such as

Obituary An obituary ( obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Ac ...

Deicide Deicide is the killing (or the killer) of a god. The concept may be used for any act of killing a god, including a life-death-rebirth deity who is killed and then resurrected. Etymology The term deicide was coined in the 17th century from m ...

, and

Broken Hope Broken Hope is an American death metal band from Chicago, Illinois. History Broken Hope was founded in 1988. They were known as an accomplished mid-paced style death metal band with low-pitched growling vocals. As a band, they were active for ...

. The EP ''Ramses Bringer of War'' was released by Visceral Productions in 1997. The label was due to release the band's first full-length album '' Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka'', but went out of business later that year. However, Relapse Records was open to releasing it early on, giving Nile a wider distribution and a chance to tour with

Incantation An incantation, a spell, a charm, an enchantment or a bewitchery, is a magical formula intended to trigger a magical effect on a person or objects. The formula can be spoken, sung or chanted. An incantation can also be performed during ceremo ...

and

Morbid Angel Morbid Angel is an American death metal band based in Tampa, Florida, formed in 1983 by guitarist, primary composer and sole remaining original member Trey Azagthoth, vocalist and bassist Dallas Ward, and drummer Mike Browning. Widely considered ...

2000s

The follow-up, ''

Black Seeds of Vengeance ''Black Seeds of Vengeance'' is the second album by American technical death metal band Nile, released on September 5, 2000, through Relapse Records. It was the first album in Nile's discography to mark a more complex musical direction, as well a ...

'', was released in September 2000. Prior to the release, drummer Pete Hammoura left the band due to injuries sustained while touring with Catacomb. Derek Roddy stepped in as a session musician to perform on all of the tracks (except "To Dream of Ur"). Also, prior to the album,

Dallas Toler-Wade Dallas Toler-Wade (born June 6, 1974) is an American musician, best known for his work in the ancient Egyptian-themed technical death metal band Nile. He is currently the guitarist, lead vocalist and primary songwriter of the metal band Narc ...

joined as a second guitarist/vocalist. Chief Spires left the band a few months after the release of ''Black Seeds of Vengeance'', citing personal and professional differences. He was replaced by Jon Vesano. The band also found new drummer Tony Laureano. In 2002, ''

In Their Darkened Shrines ''In Their Darkened Shrines'' is the third studio album by American death metal band Nile. It was released on August 20, 2002 through Relapse Records. It is the only album to feature Tony Laureano on drums. In addition to being Nile's longest ...

'' was released. One reviewer noted that the album gave "death metal a cinematic, symphonic twist". Two videos were shot with director

Darren Doane Darren Doane (born September 20, 1972) is an American filmmaker, actor, and music video director.Annihilation of the Wicked'' was released in 2005. Greek drummer George Kollias stepped in to replace Laureano, who left before the recording sessions began. After recording the bass parts for the album, Jon Vesano also left the band. He was temporarily replaced by Joe Payne on the following tour. Another

Darren Doane Darren Doane (born September 20, 1972) is an American filmmaker, actor, and music video director.Nuclear Blast Nuclear Blast is a record label and mail order record distributor with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. The label was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Germany. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label mov ...

. On February 26, 2007, Nile entered the studio and began recording their fifth full-length album entitled '' Ithyphallic'', which was their first release with the label. Karl Sanders had confirmed a release date of June 29, 2007, via a posting on the band's message board, which was later pushed back to July 20, 2007. As a special bonus, Nuclear Blast gave several fans the opportunity to listen to the new album two weeks before its release if they could decipher a hieroglyphic message, to which "papyrus" was the answer. Upon the album's release, it sold 4,600 copies, which enabled Nile to get onto the ''Billboard'' 200 for the first time, reaching No. 162 on that chart. On March 21, 2007, Nile was confirmed as a "Second Stage" act for Ozzfest 2007. A message from Karl Sanders via Nile's MySpace profile indicated that they were excited to finally bring true death metal to an Ozzfest audience. From March to April 2008, Nile went on a headlining tour in the United States with

Suicide Silence Suicide Silence is an American deathcore band from Riverside, California. The band was established in 2002, and has released six studio albums, three EPs, and nineteen music videos. They were awarded the ''Revolver'' Golden God award for "Bes ...

The Faceless The Faceless are an American technical death metal band from the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles. They released their debut album, ''Akeldama'', in November 2006, and a follow-up, ''Planetary Duality'', in November 2008. The band's third a ...

Unexpect Unexpect (often stylized as uneXpect, or unexpecT, and UnexpecT) was a Canadian avant-garde extreme metal band from Montréal, featuring a unique amalgamation of different metal subgenres like progressive metal, death metal, black metal and mel ...

, and

Warbringer Warbringer is an American thrash metal band formed in 2004. Century Media Records signed Warbringer after seeing them at a local show in LA. Originally, a Century Media rep was at the show to see another LA thrash metal band but decided to sign W ...

. From September to October 2008, Nile set out on a European headlining tour with

Grave A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grave ...

Omnium Gatherum Omnium Gatherum is a six-piece melodic death metal band from Finland, founded in the autumn of 1996. Although the band mainly follows the path of the melodic death metal genre, much of their work shows strong influences from progressive metal, ...

and

Severe Torture Severe Torture is a Dutch death metal band, formed in 1997 by drummer Seth van de Loo and bassist Patrick Boleij. History The band was formed in 1997 by Thijs van Laarhoven on guitar, Seth van de Loo on drums, Erik de Windt on vocals, Jelle Sc ...

. In October 2008, the band planned to take their ''Ithyphallic'' tour to South Africa for a booking of three shows, but were canceled for unknown reasons. In June 2009, Nile entered the recording studio to begin work on their sixth full-length album entitled ''

Those Whom the Gods Detest ''Those Whom the Gods Detest'' is the sixth studio album by American technical death metal band Nile. The album was released on November 3, 2009, in North America, and on November 6, 2009, in Europe through Nuclear Blast. It was produced and mix ...

''. The album was released on November 3, 2009, and was critically well-received, with one reviewer suggesting "pretty much the only thing standing in Nile's way at this point is the fact that we as listeners have become so accustomed to the band's excellence that another excellent album seems almost par for the course".

2010s

On October 21, 2010, bassist Chris Lollis was confirmed as the new member for Nile, after four years of session work with the band. On December 6, 2011, Nile announced work in progress, and the completion of drum tracking, for their upcoming album in 2012. On February 4, 2012, Karl Sanders announced on his Facebook page that they had a new bassist, Todd Ellis, who would contribute vocals to the new record. The next day, he explained on the band's official forum that he had lost contact with Chris Lollis during the writing and recording of the upcoming album, and after three months of silence from him they hired a replacement. The seventh album '' At the Gate of Sethu'' was released on June 29, 2012. On February 9, 2015, Todd Ellis left the band, citing "unforeseen circumstances beyond my control". Nile's eighth studio album '' What Should Not Be Unearthed'' was released on August 28, 2015. In the summer of 2016, the band took part in the Summer Slaughter tour. In October 2016, after the Summer Slaughter tour, Dallas Toler-Wade left the band, prioritizing his duties with Narcotic Wasteland, and was replaced by Enthean vocalist/guitarist Brian Kingsland. Nile made the announcement in February 2017, In May 2017, the band entered the studio to begin work on their ninth album ''

'', which was released on November 1, 2019.

2020s

In July 2022, Sanders confirmed to ''

Guitar World ''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists – and fans of guitar-based music and trends – that has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original art ...

'' magazine that Nile has been working on their tenth studio album: "So far, we've got 10 songs written. We're probably going to do three more, and hopefully start recording by the end of the summer. Then we've got a European tour coming up in November/December, and after that, we've got to finish the record and hopefully get it out sometime early next year." In October 2022 Nile announced Julian Guillen would be joining the band on bass for the upcoming November/December European tour.

Musical style and lyrical themes

The majority of Nile's music is written by vocalist/guitarist

. It combines traditional and

technical death metal Technical death metal (also referred to as tech-death) is a musical subgenre of death metal that began and developed in the early- to mid-1990s, with particular focus on challenging, demanding instrumental skill and complex songwriting. Techni ...

. Nile's music is characterized by the

genre's comparative complexity and speed combined with a riffing style consistent with brutal death metal. Nile's guitar and bass tunings are typically

Dropped A tuning This article contains a list of guitar tunings that supplements the article guitar tunings. In particular, this list contains more examples of open and regular tunings, which are discussed in the article on guitar tunings. In addition, this list ...

. Much of the lyrical content is based on Sanders' interest in

(mainly inspired by Ancient Egyptian and

Near Eastern The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

, and

ancient art Ancient art refers to the many types of art produced by the advanced cultures of ancient societies with some form of writing, such as those of ancient China, India, Mesopotamia, Persia, Palestine, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The art of pre-literat ...

) and other ancient Middle Eastern cultures, such as

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

. Works of H.P. Lovecraft also seems to have an enduring influence upon the band's lyrical themes; the word "Nile" and the title of the band's first full-length album ("Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka") can both be found in the same sentence of Lovecraft's short story '' The Outsider''. Extensive sleeve notes are included on all Nile's full-length releases from ''Black Seeds of Vengeance'' onwards, with the exception of '' Ithyphallic'', explaining the inspiration or source for the lyrics of each song.

Band members

Current members *

– guitars (1993-present), vocals, keyboards (1995–present) * George Kollias – drums (2004–present) *Brian Kingsland – guitars, vocals (2017–present) *Scott Eames – guitars, vocals (2022–present; live 2022) *Julian David Guillen - bass, vocals (live 2022) Former members *Chief Spires – bass, vocals (1993–2001) *Pete Hammoura – drums, vocals (1993–2000) *John Ehlers – guitars (1996–1997) *

– guitars, vocals (1997–2016) *

Tony Laureano Tony Laureano (born January 25, 1973) is a heavy metal drummer originally from Puerto Rico. He has played for a number of metal bands (either as a full band member or a session drummer) including Dimmu Borgir, Nile, Angelcorpse, Malevolent Crea ...

– drums (2000–2004) *Jon Vesano – bass, vocals (2001–2005) *Chris Lollis – bass, vocals (2007–2012) *Todd Ellis – bass, vocals (2012–2015) *Brad Parris – bass, vocals (2015–2022) Session musicians *

Derek Roddy Derek Roddy (born August 28, 1972) is an American drummer and snake breeder, originally from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. His ability to record entire drum tracks in one or two takes earned him the nickname "One Take". Derek has gained a reputa ...

– drums (2000) Live musicians *

Tim Yeung Tim Yeung (born November 27, 1978) is an American extreme metal drummer. He currently performs in the band I Am Morbid, which plays Morbid Angel songs and also features Morbid Angel's former vocalist/bassist David Vincent (musician), David Vinc ...

– drums (2003) * Joe Payne – bass, vocals (2005–2007, died 2020) * Steve Tucker – bass, vocals (2005) Timeline

Discography

Studio albums *'' Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka'' (1998) *''

'' (2000) *''

'' (2002) *'' Annihilation of the Wicked'' (2005) *'' Ithyphallic'' (2007) *''

'' (2009) *'' At the Gate of Sethu'' (2012) *'' What Should Not Be Unearthed'' (2015) *''

'' (2019)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nile 1993 establishments in South Carolina American death metal musical groups American technical death metal musical groups Egyptian mythology in music Heavy metal musical groups from South Carolina Musical groups established in 1993 Musical groups from South Carolina Musical quartets Napalm Records artists