April 15^th 2014, the night of the first of 4 blood moons reigning in the apocalypse, also heralded the NILE show at the Baltimore Soundstage. There was nobody touring with them, only some local openers, MARCH TO VICTORY, and EXEMPTUS. All three bands were absolutely killer. Naturally I had the chance to mingle with everybody, as well as a great interview with Karl Sanders from NILE. Unfortunately there was supposed to be another band that did not show up, but that was their loss not mine. The crowd was pretty light at first, but by the time NILE took the stage it had filled up quite nicely.

First up in the evening's festivities was MARCH TO VICTORY, a group from Lancaster PA. I had never seen these guys live but I have heard the name. They were pretty awesome live. Everybody had great energy and really slammed. They are a Thrash / Death Metal band that really know what they are doing.  The drummer was nuts and the rest of the guys were no joke either.

The second act was EXEMPTUS. They have a Thrash Metal sound with some Punk thrown into the mix. These guys all had tremendous energy. The vocalist jumped off the stage, and even pulled a severed head from a boiling cauldron. Great showmanship. These guys were really cool, I got to chill and talk to them a little bit. IT was also nice to see such a mix up of genres all together. I recommend seeing EXEMPTUS if you ever have the chance. They have great crowd interaction, and put on a hell of a show.

Setlist:
1. Whisper Alley
2. Prisoner of the Dead
3. Life for a Life
4. Final Judgment
5. Witch Hunt
 

Finally we have the great NILE who headlined the show with an extra-long set. Needless to say they were absolute dynamite. They really did a hell of a set. They have great crowd interaction and really jam the hell out. I got to do an interview with Karl, and he's a cool guy. It's awesome that everyone plays an instrument plus the three string players all sing with a different growl or shriek to add the mix. I mean their drummer is damn so intense. To watch him live is simply incredible. Everybody in the band has wonderful energy and amazing talent. If you haven't seen them live yet don't wait for it.
 

Setlist:
1. Sacrifice Unto Sebek
2. Defiling the Gates of Ishtar
3. Chapter for Transforming into a Snake
4. Kafir!
5. Hittite Dung Incantation
6. Enduring the Eternal Molestation of Flame
7. Supreme Humanism of Megalomania
8. As He Creates So He Destroys
9. The Blessed Dead
10. Unas Slayer Of The Gods
11. The Inevitable Degradation of Flesh
12. Iskander Dhul Kharnon
13. Sarcophagus
14. Lashed to the Slave Stick
15. Black Seeds of Vengeance
 

All in all the show was great. Too bad that the fourth band didn't show up. I was a little worried about the crowd at first but, it livened up a lot. It was a blast. I got to meet some awesome people and hear some fantastic music. The diversity was cool, the local bands as well as NILE were all on fire.

*Photography by Joe Fryer (The Digital Lightbox)
 

Strongly promoting their latest "At the Gate of Sethu", NILE is hitting the US and hard. Right before heading out to the stage, Karl Sanders, the longstanding founder of the band, talked to Eddie and Joe regarding the latest album and the past.

So the first question we have this evening can you explain the writing process on the new album and how it differs from past albums?

Now for new album are we referring to at the gate of sethu or the one we are writing right now?

We'll say the latest album

With the new record that we are working on songs for right now, the process is essentially very similar to past records in that the songs start with lyrics and Dallas and I will flesh out those lyrics with guitar parts and grow them into songs. Make them sprout, Make them flourish.  And then we make song demos and send them to George.  He lives in Athens Greece, and he will work on his parts there and then we go back and forth trading demos and kind of chopping the song, changing adapting making it grow as each member has a little input it shapes the ongoing process.  With this record I'd say there is an anti-technique, not that it's not technical death metal, it is, but it's like anti technique is like anti matter, it's not the absence of matter, its opposite, so yes it is technical but it's being used in a way that different than the way we have employed it.  It is technique meant to sound like there is not so much technique, we don't even care about the technique we are just going for some really savage kind of shit.  The last record I felt was really surgical, really focused on exacting musicianship, it was surgical point, maybe a little bit sterile for my taste at the moment.  Usually after every album I swing like a pendulum.  At the moment I am thinking savage, primitive, brutal, As technical as we are with the impeccable musicianship that we do, if we were to play bolt thrower songs, bolt thrower is not a super technical thing but are super savage, super fucking heavy, super primitive and its glorious I love it

Definitely

That's kind of where we are taking things, our focus, where our minds are at.

Nice.  Alright, so how has the crowd reaction been so far on this tour?

Well this is the second night of the tour so we really have only last night to talk about.  It was a great crowd last night Monday night in Atlanta, a couple hundred people turned up.  I was thrilled

That's good. Alright so this is a bit of a technical question here what equipment do you use live as opposed to when you are in the studio.  Do you use different equipment or is it the same equipment?
Yeah its different, I have my live rig and I like my studio rig is like whatever, it may be whatever head happens to get that sound through that cabinet through that microphone through that mike pre and we will trade them out trying to zero in on it.  Funny Story. When we went to do Black seeds of vengeance we had loved the sound of the nefron Ka sound so much we were like let's do the exact same thing, I had the exact same cables they were marked and labeled, the guitar cable, the speaker cable, this head, through this cabinet and we put the microphone right here and we use this mic pre, I had it down to a fucking science and that shit sounded completely different a year and a half later.

It has a tendency to do that sometimes, things change like that unexplainably. His drums sound differently one place than another, it the acoustics of the area

The humidity, the air temperature it all factors in.  We were in the same studio, exact same signal pattern, exact same signal chain, we put the amp in the exact same place in the room.  We used the same blanket, dude it was like science…Science Thomas Dolby kind of science and it didn't sound anything like it.  It is like mind blowing.

Can you elaborate a little bit on how you guys came to the awesome Egyptian theme that you guys have had which I like?

I get asked this question about 5 or 6 times a day. You know it really happened in the most ridiculously simple way.  I kind of woke up one day after we had the name Nile for a few months and I went well gee if I were listening to a band called Nile what would I want to hear maybe I should be working in some of my you know Egyptian kind of interests into these songs.  Seems like a no brainer. I'm interested in Egypt, I'm in a band called Nile, why don't we write songs about Egypt.

That works. I did want to congratulate you I saw your photo a couple of months ago, you got your 3^rd degree black belt?

I've got a 1^st degree black belt in Tae Kwan do, I've got my brown belt in tai jit tsu.

It was Tae kwan do so I wanted to congratulate you on that

Thank you

That's pretty awesome, I have a black belt in hap ki do actually

No Kidding!  Wow Hap ki do has some really fucking cool moves.

Yeah it does ( laughing) definitely

There is a leg takedown I stole from this hap ki do guy saw the video on line, side kick coming in, you go under with this one circle around and this leg turns and you turn your body and slams into his face right on the floor. Love it
Brutal, nice and brutal… You recently made public on face book your opinion of people with cell phones in concerts and constantly holding them there. Do you have anything to say to the people that will be there with their cell phones out the whole time.

Yeah I do have something to say. I got asked, what were my feelings on the matter, and that was the question that was asked and so I answered and then it got really blown out of proportion and completely taken out of context. So if you just take what I said and make a friggin headline out of it,  it puts it in a different light than if we were just sitting here talking about it. Karl how does this make you feel well I'm a man and I can say if something doesn't bother me I can say no I don't like that that fucking shit, no I don't like it.

I'm the same way, as a photographer I'm sitting there you know off to the side shooting you guys and people are getting pissed off at me " You're in my shot" Dude you are holding a $100 camera I've got $5,000 worth of equipment.. Who is going to take the better photo.  We went to the Children of Bodom Concert a couple of weeks ago and the same thing I had a guy in the front row.. I'm in between the barriers, he is trying to push me out of the way.  I'm like you have a cell phone..

Like we are up here trying to do a job and take good photos to promote the band's that are playing for the magazine and you are trying to get a video to post to Facebook to brag about how close to the band you are?

We live in a generation where people are oblivious to the other things around them, which is kind of the point I am making. If you are standing there with your cell phone right up in the dude's face, other people are trying to enjoy the show.  While you do have the right to do whatever you want to do with your own cell phone there are other fans that paid good money to enjoy the show. So but whatever, people can do what they want with their cell phones, I'm not going to complain.  I can live. I personally if I'm playing guitar or whatever I would rather, given the choice in the matter, see people enjoying the money they spent on their ticket rather than have their nose in a cell phone. But that's up to them

Yeah it doesn't matter how you take the show to each person. Like to me you look out and all you see is lights. You know the back lights off the cell phone.

It's very silly when you look at the picture from the back and you go How gay have concerts become…

I started listening to you guys off your first album back in 98 and I saw you guys I think it was in 2000 in DC the first time.  Nobody had anything like that, like cellphones, nobody had cell phones.  Nowadays it's different you know.  I'm interested to see, like my first show with you guys was like 13 years ago.

Times have changed.

Constantly changing. And speaking of changing, can you describe a little bit the evolution of your sound from the early days until now?
Well, hopefully we have progressed as musicians, songwriters, but I think the heart of the band is still the same, still brutal death metal, we are still pushing ourselves and reaching to do the best that we possibly can while at the same time writing songs that are entertaining to listen to.  There is a lot of Tech death that does have amazing playing in it that is frankly challenging to still pay attention to after five minutes. With Nile we try to write songs that people can enjoy listening to while at the same time being challenging enough to us as player to hold our interest.

I can listen to your first album as compared to now. it's like Ramses bringer war is number 6, when  I first heard that I was like holy fuck shit, you know, what the fuck is this, I was just hanging out with a buddy of mine and he was like hey man check this out and I was like ohhhhhhhhh you know,

Yeah I can remember my first time too

It's just like what the fuck how awesome is this.  We appreciate you doing the interview with us.

It was my pleasure guys

Yes thank you very much

Thank you

This is probably the giddiest I have been.  Like I have said I have been a big fan.

I have been anticipating this for a while. Very excited

Me too, I am happy to be here.

Thank you Karl

Thank you sir