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Nile.
 Karl Sanders, guitarist and vocalist for American death metal outfit Nile (as well as one of the band's founding members), is straight to the point when telling me what brings his group out here for their first tour. "Metal!" he enthuses. "Metal is bringing us to Australia! Fuck yeah! Make no mistake, we are coming to play some metal!"
Nile combine uncompromisingly brutal death metal with an obsession with ancient Egypt: in fact, all of the songs that they've written deal with this subject in one way or another. Explaining how this rather unusual marriage came about, Sanders says, "Really, they were the two things I was most interested in. Rather than try and lead a dual and separate life, I just rolled everything that I love all together and got one big, brutal, ugly mess out of the whole thing."
Sanders has been interested in Egyptology for a very long time, describing his fascination with the subject as a kind of casual hobby that he's had since childhood. "It probably started with me watching all the old epic flicks with my dad," he informs me. "Movies like 'Ben Hur', 'Sodom and Gomorrah', 'The Ten Commandments', 'Cleopatra' and 'Spartacus'; I mean, there were dozens of them. It just fired my imagination and triggered my interest in ancient civilisations."
Having a great interest in history myself, I often find my own interest in any historical period accompanied by feelings of (no doubt misguided) nostalgia for the period in question. Sanders, however, reveals that, keen as it is, his interest in ancient times has never actually led him to wish that he'd lived in such times himself. "They didn't have electricity back then, so I wouldn't have Marshall stacks, computers and Internet connections," he says. "I don't know if I could live without that stuff."
Which raises a very valid point about nostalgia: it's easy to get all starry-eyed about the past until you realize all the stuff which people back then had to go without. "Yeah, we've got it pretty lucky!" he laughs. "Our standard of living in the year 2005; dude, we live better than the old kings!"
As well as writing songs about ancient Egypt, Nile use Middle Eastern instruments in their music: something that helps create an atmosphere evocative of the relevant historical period. "One instrument I'm very fond of is my baglamasaz; it's a long-necked Turkish lute," Sanders says. "It's a great piece; it's on several songs." The band don't use these instruments when playing live, however, for as Sanders puts it, "They're much too fragile to be on a death metal tour. I mean, they'd be shredded within a week." Despite this, however, he assures me that the group are still able to recreate the dramatic atmospheric passages on their recorded material fairly faithfully live. "I use a combination of different stuff," he explains. "Between my guitar synths, my midi pedals, and my computer, I can get pretty fucking close to the record."
One thing the band don't do at their live shows is adorn the stage with ancient Egyptian-related props. "We have been tempted a couple of times," Sanders admits, "but I think with Nile, we like to keep it to just the metal. We get up there, and we do our thing; it's real honest, it's real direct. We just do what we do, and there you go."
During their twelve-year existence, Nile have toured extensively (this year they did two European tours), which leads me to wonder if they've ever taken their act to Egypt itself. "Ah no," Sanders says. "Death metal concerts, they don't happen in Egypt! It's not a thing you can find in Egypt, or any of the other hardcore Arabic countries for that matter."
In addition to undertaking their first Australian tour this year, Nile have also put out a new release, 'Annihilation Of The Wicked'. Explaining how this came together, Sanders is once again straight-to-the-point. "Well, we wrote some songs, recorded them, and handed them to the record company," he says. "Typical story, nothing too brilliant about it: just put a lot of hard work into it. Simple, plain, honest hard work. I think the biggest improvement was the addition of our new drummer, George Kollias. We also took on a real producer this time, Neil Kernon [perhaps best known for his work with Judas Priest]; I think he gave us a nice, clean, clear sound that really let the music speak for itself."
James Brazel
 | Nile play with Furor and Omnium at the Adelaide UniBar on Fri 2 Dec. |
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