Nile

Live at The Key Club

in Los Angeles, CA

November 16th, 2010

Nile are pretty insane. I listen to lots of extreme metal in all of its sub genres and have been to many concerts where a band has an extremely loyal following but these guys definitely have one of the most hard core audiences I have ever experienced.

My own past with Nile is fairly light compared to these fanatics, having only one CD and then listening to other tracks online.  I think they are good on disc with a nice dose of heaviness both in growled vocals and with intense guitar work that is leaps above many comparable bands in skill and song writing categories.

The band is thematic in terms of the lyrics and imagery and focus on ancient Egypt both in terms of historical tales but also in the Myths and Gods that frequent that history. The band themselves do not delve into any of the stage show gimmicks that many Black and Death metal bands utilize which is fine by their audience.

I was fully anticipating an active crowd to say the least but the energy and mosh pit literally knocked me off my feet. As soon as the first riff resounded, the crowd were moving and half way through the first song someone behind me went down, slid across the floor catching me in the back of the knees and next thing I knew, I was on top of them. I am a big guy and over 250 pounds on top of you could not have felt too good but everyone helped us up with a smile and then the frenzy continued.

The mosh pit never let up, maybe the one song about Dagon where things slowed down only slightly did the mosh pit get moderately less fast but even on the one song that is as close to a ballad as these brutal beasts dish out, there were people moving.

Everyone in the pit flew into each other with big smiles on their faces however, and anyone who fell got hoisted back up so they did not get trampled. Although it was a violent pit, it was all good natured fun which was great to see after some LA shows that were not so conducive to a communal good time.

The band themselves also had a great time for the set. There are two main guitarists which are the long-standing members of the band itself. One was a blond guy of a bigger stature and the other had a shaved head. They stood to either side and a long haired bassist to front and center.

The bassist is not in any of their press materials but did most of the front-man type interaction with the audience, both in terms of announcing songs as well as bantering about how awesome the crowd was and how everyone in here had shed some skin walking through the front doors, expressing their love of extreme music and then he had everyone stick up communal middle fingers at the overall music industry.

The two guitarists and the bassist shared vocal duties which I thought was really cool. During each song, they would sing different parts of the verse and chorus. They all sing pretty growlly but there is a difference between their voices so it worked well alternating between them.

The guitar work is laid down insanely thick and super heavy so it was impossible not to bang your head along with it unless you were in the pit banging every other body part too.

The drummer was hard to see as the stage has a big screen above it and risers are never tall enough at this venue, but you could see him at times when the lights back there flared and he was a mad man beating away.

I am not super familiar with all their songs so I did not know a lot of the material they played but I know they did the "Arra of Dagon" as mentioned earlier which some people complained about being a poor choice live, but I whole heartedly disagree, I think it is a cool song and a slight relent in the onslaught was perfect at that point in the set.

They did the title track off their newest album "Those Whom The Gods Detest" and they announced "Permitting the Noble Dead to Descend Into the Underworld" which I liked a lot. The biggest reaction from the audience came from the last two songs of the set however, the first being "Lashed to the Slave Stick" which everyone loved.

Their final track of the night sent everyone into one last frenzy though when they broke into "Black Seeds of Vengeance". This song had the most easily recognizable chorus and so had the best sing along of their set.

A dark haired girl came out from back stage with both her middle fingers raised and sang the chorus with them, sharing the mic with the blond guitarist. She then leaped onto the crowd, surfed around for a bit and then was let off back on stage. I have no idea who that was but it was obviously band endorsed and it was cool having screeching female vocals adding in to the other three male voices on the chorus.

Overall, I would have to say it was a great show. Even if you are not a fan of Nile but you like extreme metal, you should definitely check them out live, they are totally insane. I went home with my lower back feeling like I had been kidney punched a few dozen times but I had a real blast and would definitely see them again.

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