A post for christmas, YAY! Here's "Nile" for the letter N!
The band:
Nile are a quite... "unusual" metal band. They play some sort of technical death metal, but they describe their music as "Ithyphallic metal". What's "Ithyphallic"? Here's what wiktionary has to say:
ithyphallic (comparative more ithyphallic, superlative most ithyphallic)
1. Of or pertaining to the erect phallus that was carried in bacchic processions.
2. (by extension) lascivious or obscene.
Or in other words: It describes an erect phallus, like they are displayed on pictures of gods of fertility.
Nile's music is heavily influenced by ancient Egyptian themes (hence their band name), which makes them "unusual" in my opinion.
Nile formed in 1993 with the lineup Karl Sanders, Chief Spires and Pete Hammoura. They debut EP "Festivals of Atonement" was released in 1995 and a tour as supporting act for bands like Obituary and Deicide followed in the southwest of the USA.
After their second EP "Ramses Bringer of War" - released in 1997 - the lable Visceral Productions was going to release the deput LP "Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka", but they went out of business before they could publish the album.
Luckily for Nile the lable Relapse Records took over and released their debut in 1998.
In the year 2000 the second album "Black Seeds of Vengeance" was released. Before the release however the drummer Pete Hammoura left the band, due to injuries sustained while he was touring for "The Catacombs", making it impossible for him to continue as a death metal drummer. Later that year Chief Spires left the band as well, due to "personal differences". he was replaced by Jon Vesano, Tony Laureano joined the band as a new drummer.
Another album was released in 2005: Annihilation of the Wicked. Again with a new drummer, George Kollias. After the recording of the album Jon Vesano left the band as well.
In 2006 Nile signed a contract with Nuclear Blast, one year later the next album followed: Ithyphallic (explanation: See above ;) ). This album sold 4,600 times, which gained Nile their first Billboard 200 entry (peaking at #162).
After a lot of touring (Ozzfest 2007 for example) the band released another album in 2009, called "Those Whom the Gods Detest", which peaked at #160 after it sold 3,500 copies in the first week of it's release.
The song:
This is "Nas Akhu Khan she en Asbiu". 9th track from Black Seeds of Vengeance. Yes, I chose this song because of it's title. :P
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The cover:
