Live Review: Nile – Manchester

I’ve had some great nights in Manchester with Nile over the years: at Jilly’’s in 2005, when they had Dying Fetus as their main support and again, in 2015, when the band toured with Suffocation and hit Sound Control. Hard.

Neither of those venues exist any longer – don’t look for them – so, hopefully, whatever ancient Egyptian curse Nile weave won’t bring about the demise of the Rebellion Bar.

Opening this four-band international bill is Belgium’s Pestifer who have been serving up their brand of progressive technical death metal for the past twenty-years. Their Death / Atheist vibes start the evening on a high note, with the intensity being broken up with a little bit of a jaunty shuffle.

From Estonia come Intrepid, the most Old-School of the bands on offer tonight, with their Eighties Florida sound enhanced by having a combat-pant-clad bassist – playing a crazily-shaped instrument and a guitarist sporting a Morbid Angel long-sleeve. Almost makes you feel young again as they conjure the dark, fetid atmosphere of those swamps.

Internacine’s Hymns of Sanctity is used as the intro tape, before Blood Means Nothing and Mesmerism confirms Intrepid’s Morrison Sound credentials. Slow, doomy Morbid Angel riffs spill dank atmosphere over the sizable crowd, continuing through I Am the Vile and Opiated Consumption, before closing with the blast-beat heavy Overthrone, and its rampaging charge.

Moving back into a more central European location, we have Hideous Divinity from the wonderful city of Rome, who offer another, slightly different take on the Death Metal blueprint. Using stop-start rhythms and multiple tempo shifts gives the Italian’s music an unsettling feel, though vocalist Enrico leads the insanity of their performance with the confidence of a crazed surgeon.

Musical technicality aligns with sheer brutality, stopping short of Deathcore, but in the same vein as a Cattle Decapitation, or fellow Italian band, Fleshgod Apocalypse. With lyrical concerns covering Aliens – the film, rather than the little grey folk from off-world – and Nosferatu, the expansive nature of the band’s music gives Rebellion another look at the evolution of the genre.

Headliners, Nile, out of Greensville, South Carolina, have been one of the dominant forces of the Nineties Death Metal scene, being cited as influencing artists as diverse as Kittie, Suicide Silence and Whitechapel since the release of their 1998 debut, Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka.

Making Manchester a more regular stop on their touring schedule, the four-piece were last in town a couple of years back. Tonight, even though it’s a Tuesday, Rebellion is all-but Sold Out, and ready for a masterclass in technical proficiency.

What’s always set Nile apart is the spreading of the front-man role. Mainstay Karl Sanders positions himself stage-left, allowing the centre ground to be occupied by bassist/ vocalist, Dan Vadim Von, with Zach Jeter on guitar and vocals – and wearing a Nile shirt – out on the right.

Following the familiar opener of Sacrifice Unto Sebek, comes a swift and brutal Defiling the Gates of Ishtar, filled with short, sharp blasts and technical wizardry; it’s almost like jazz, with several musical cannons all firing at the same time, yet never feeling unruly or disjointed.

Newbie, To Strike with Secret Fang from this year’s The Underworld Awaits Us All record, features an epic solo, which soars above the destructive drumming from long-time percussionist, George Kollias. Only three of the new album’s tunes are aired tonight but, as with …Secret Fang, both Stelae of Vultures and Chapter for Not Being Hung Upside Down on a Stake in the Underworld and Made to

Eat Feces by the Four Apes – just hope you don’t get this one if playing charades at Christmas – demonstrating age has not mellowed Nile’s sense of raw, brutal carnage.

Kafir! is slows things down just a touch, with the chanted refrain of “there is no God”, it’s a stone cold death metal classic even before the searing solo and weighty chugs arrive. Call to Destruction finds Dan doing some impossible looking fretting throughout, as What Should Not Be Unearthed’s opening number slithers like an asp before hitting its groove. Vile Nilotic Rites continues the slithering and grooving, slowing the pace while upping the atmosphere.

In the Name of Amun and Lashed to the Slave Stick take us into the only visit to third album, In their Darkened Shrines, for the undisputed classic, Sarcophagus’ swirling atmospherics, marking the beginning of the show’s final strait.

After Chapter for Not Being… it’s into the closing duo of the oozing Annihilation of the Wicked and the ghostly, multi-layered Black Seeds of Vengeance.

There were a few technical issues across the evening, but it’s to be expected with live music and nothing to distract from the overall enjoyment of having Nile in the room. The genius of having four quite-different death metal bands on one bill means that there’s something for everyone, not matter how you prefer your DM. Plus, it’s Nile.