NILE - DEMO (1994)

Here's a curious little chunk of metal history for you: the first ever demo from Egypt South Carolina's own bastard sons, NILE. I'm pretty sure I made passing reference to this 5-song cassette in some other post in the past, but I felt it deserved its own little sarcophagus chiseled out in the vast catacombs of IllCon lore, being as it is such a strange and goofy documentation in itself.
Now, I'm not a huge Nile fan, my appreciation for them crested at about Black Seeds and has levelled off a little more every album since. But these dudes make some pretty cool, unique music, and their good recordings are indeed really good. That being said: man, this demo is some weird shit.
Musically, all the Nile-isms are present--Karl Sanders' distinct, soaring guitar lines, the doomy, plodding, bass-heavy riffs, the occasional cacophonous ogre-roar--but Jesus, those vocals. I guess I would call them quasi-Hetfield-esque: Nile were definitely aiming for a more "commercial" sound at this early point in their career, and hearing them with these Southern-Baptist-preacher vocal lines over their music is quite a trip. The songs themselves even veer off into what might be called "nu-metal" territory once or twice during the course of this demo, inevitably causing the more ponderous metalhead to contemplate what might have become of Nile had they followed this odd path.
Weird. Still pretty good, but weird.

Download HERE

Karl Sanders: Extreme Metal Lolfest.

Nile Metallum/Last.FM