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NILE announces first new album in five years, 'The Underworld Awaits Us All'

Release single "Chapter For Not Being Hung Upside Down On A Stake In The Underworld And Made To Eat Feces By The Four Apes"

Photo credit: Casey Coscarelli

30-05-2024

NILE return in 2024 with their tenth studio album, “The Underworld Awaits Us All”, due out August 23 via Napalm Records. The album “pushes each member of NILE — founding mastermind/guitarist Karl Sanders, longtime drum master George Kollias, vocalist/guitarists Brian Kingsland and Zach Jeter, and bassist Dan Vadim Von (also of Morbid Angel) — to their furthest extremes both in artistry and performance. Once again produced and recorded at Sanders‘s own Serpent Headed Studios in Greenville, South Carolina, the band returned to “Vile Nilotic Rites” engineer Mark Lewis (CANNIBAL CORPSEDYING FETUSWHITECHAPEL) for mixing and mastering. In celebration of the announcement, NILE have dropped the album’s first new single, “Chapter For Not Being Hung Upside Down On A Stake In The Underworld And Made To Eat Feces By The Four Apes”, alongside a new official music video. The song is citing the Egyptian Book Of The Dead.

Watch “Chapter For Not Being Hung Upside Down On A Stake In The Underworld And Made To Eat Feces By The Four Apes” below.

Sanders comments on the new track and video: “‘Chapter For Not Being Hung Upside Down’ is one of our favorite tracks on the new record. It’s a lot of fun to play, challenging and unpredictable, but with an infectiously brutal, unrestrained vibe that I am very certain will be a blast in the mosh pit during live shows.

“We are super happy to be working with Tom Flynn for the video for this song. He is a visionary with insanely creative ideas and a really cool guy to work with. Very excited for people to see what he has been cooking up with this video.”

previously, NILE shared a short video of founder Karl Sanders (guitar, vocals) and Lewis as they were putting the finishing touches on the band’s tenth LP. The clip was accompanied by the following caption: “We are DONE mixing the new NILE album! This album sounds killer – We have put our hearts and souls into this record, and we believe that the amount of time, effort, and detail that went into it shows through the music. \m/”

Sanders says about the album: “We are very happy to be sharing with fans NILE‘s 10th album. We worked overtime making this record as killer as we could — because we sincerely felt fans deserved our best efforts. ‘The Underworld Awaits Us All’ — and we will see you there.”

“The Underworld Awaits Us All”‘s mind-bending art was once again envisioned and created by Michał “Xaay” Loranc, with reference to the cycle of life and judgment at its end.

“The Underworld Awaits Us All” track listing:

01. Stelae Of Vultures
02. Chapter For Not Being Hung Upside Down On A Stake In The Underworld And Made To Eat Feces By The Four Apes
03. To Strike With Secret Fang
04. Naqada II Enter The Golden Age
05. The Pentagrammathion Of Nephren-Ka
06. Overlords Of The Black Earth
07. Under The Curse Of The One God
09. Doctrine Of Last Things
10. True Gods Of The Desert
11. The Underworld Awaits Us All
12. Lament For The Destruction Of Time

Last October, NILE announced its new touring lineup. Joining Sanders and longtime drummer George Kollias are Dan Vadim Von (MORBID ANGELINCANTATION) on bass/vocals and Zach Jeter (HIDEOUS DIVINITYOLKOTH) on guitar/vocals.

In June 2023, mastermind Karl Sanders spoke to Headbangers Latinoamérica about the progress of the recording sessions for NILE‘s tenth studio album. Asked how the studio work is coming along, Karl said: “Very well. (NILE drummer) George (Kollias) finished all his drums. He did an amazing job. When people hear this, they are not going to believe that it’s a real live human doing all this stuff. But it’s George. People who have seen him live and in the flesh can believe. So he’s done probably the best album of his career with this new NILE record. Now it’s our turn playing guitars.”

In July 2022, Sanders told Guitar World magazine that he and his bandmates had 10 songs written for the follow-up to 2019’s “Vile Nilotic Rites”. Earlier that same month, NILE announced the departure of bassist/vocalist Brad Parris.

NILE‘s current lineup consists of Sanders handling guitars and vocals, Kollias on drums, and Brian Kingsland, who joined the group in 2017, on guitar and vocals. Julian David Guillen is the band’s touring bassist and vocalist.

Originally hailing from Greenville, South Carolina, international death metal legends NILE have become one of the most revered names in the worldwide heavy metal scene today, combining extreme traditional and technical death metal styles with their trademarked blend of Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern soundscapes and historical mysticism.

“Vile Nilotic Rites” was released in November 2019 via Nuclear Blast. The disc was recorded and produced by Sanders at Serpent Headed Studios in Greenville, South Carolina, with the exception of the drums which were recorded at Esoteron Music Studios in Athens, Greece with engineering handled by Jim Touras and George Dovolos. The album was mixed and mastered by Mark Lewis at MRL Studios. For the album artwork, the band returned to artist Michal “Xaay” Loranc who had worked with the band for over 10 years.

In September 2021, NILE announced that it had signed a worldwide contract with Napalm Records.

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