Reviews

Nile at The Marble Factory- 9th September 2015 - concert review

Posted on: 2015-09-10

Although they clearly appeal to the masses as well, their technicality extends far beyond the instruments and creates an exciting, interesting composition that offers something truly different.

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American technical death metal band, Nile, performed at The Marble Factory in Bristol on the 9th September, supported by Suffocation.

Suffocation took to the stage in a timely fashion but unfortunately chose to come on to Stiches’ Kilos In My Bag, a song which no one in the hip-hop community can even be bothered to ridicule and which was clearly the first weed-related song they could scavenge. This kind of childish, self-aggrandising attitude is tiresome at best, and I really don’t believe anyone intelligent in the audience could care less about whether they took part in something so mainstream and adolescent as recreational drug use. Their set included a few allusions to these ‘edgy’ past times, and a slightly sad attempt to start a moshpit, but at least included songs that the crowd wanted to hear. Effigy of the Forgotten, Funeral Inception and Catatonia were all given a solid playthough, along with Thrones of Blood – completing the line up of classics.

One positive note for the band was the fact that what you hear on the recorded works is what you hear in real life. They have a generally stoic sound that can be relied upon to please a crowd of any size in any venue. Take out the bragging and this was a pretty decent set. Also I was pleased to see what appeared to be Doctor Gregory House on drums. (N.B. apparently it wasn’t.)

Nile are an interesting band, one who have always captured my imagination. As a lover of Egyptology and H. P. Lovecraft, they are the perfect band for me to nerd over, and their sound is markedly different from most bands in the scene. Nine out of ten bands will be predictably trying to play as fast as possible and self righteously shouting about how religion is self righteous, but Nile incorporate a unique blend of middle-eastern music into their tracks, and do ridiculous amounts of research, making theirs a totally different craft. One of their albums took about a year to write lyrics for, and you can see why. Although they clearly appeal to the masses as well, their technicality extends far beyond the instruments and creates an exciting, interesting composition that offers something truly different.

There was a significant delay before Nile actually took the stage, as their sound typically has to be just so. But you can hardly criticise a band for their perfectionism on one hand, then praise it on the other. It was worth the wait, their sound came out crisp and clear, and every note was to absolute technical perfection. There was little messing about, just song after song, played to an audience of massively excited fans. Their set was a nice selection of old favourites balanced with some of the newer tracks from the latest album. Kafir, Sacrifice Unto Sebek, Ithyphallic and Call To Destruction were all given a run through with incredible success, drawing an already enthused crowd ever nearer with each song. The music was fast, angry, loud, and full of intellectual references that left everyone feeling slightly smug. This is what we came for.

Their set was engaging, exciting, and varied, with each song being played to perfection, Despite the delay in set times and disappointing support act, they blasted everyone away for a solid hour, leaving no stone unturned in their comprehensive and compelling set list.

3/5

Reviewed by Miri Teixeira for 365Bristol.com

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