I promised it last week and although this article may not be as long as my other's I've come through. I'd like to dedicate this column to my grandmother who passed away on October 21. RIP.

Nile
Ithyphallic
Like Behemoth, I didn't get into Nile that much until about a year and a half ago. I had also heard about them and knew that main man Karl Sanders wrote a lot about ancient Egypt but I had no idea of the scope of the fascination.

Could extreme death metal actually be educational? You bet. Not only does Nile school you in how to write and perform some serious metal, Sander's liner notes and lyrics in most Nile releases actually tell you a lot about ancient Egypt.

Like all other Nile albums, this one is nothing to scoff at. Just like many extreme metal bands, you shake your head in awe trying to comprehend how a band like this writes their songs, plays them so fast and how anyone's feet and arms can move as fast as George Kollias can.

If you haven't heard Nile's music before, all I can say is that it is insanely fast, technical metal with everyone's favourite Cookie Monster-style vocals. Not for you? Oh well, your loss. As for those who have heard Nile before, I can state that besides the overall speed of some of the songs, nothing differs too much away from past releases. This is, of course, both a positive and negative.

Two gripes I have with this release are:

1) The production doesn't sound as polished as “Annihilations of the Wicked” (which is just killer).

2) Sander's liner notes about Egypt history and how he came up with the lyrics and subject matter for each song are absent from this release. I've become accustomed to putting on a Nile CD and reading the lyrics and notes.

Nile fans will dig the new tunes, the crazy speeds and the great song titles (such as “Papyrus Containing the Spell to Preserve Its Possessor against Attacks from He Who Is in the Water”) but those who want something different from the band (or in metal) may want to look elsewhere.