The Underworld Awaits Us All is one of those albums that tests the resilience of even the most diehard extreme metal fan. It is a seething sonic maelstrom created by mastermind Karl Sanders and his crew with the goal of pummelling their audience into submission; they succeed and then some. On the one hand, it's nothing new for the Nile mission statement, but The Underworld Awaits Us All offers up something bestial that gives off a different vibe from previous albums. It is an experience, satisfying Sanders' healthy obsession with Egyptology and transforming the stories that inspire him into a crushing assault. This is Nile celebrating its 30th Anniversary in top form.

Prior to getting down to serious business, however, there was the matter of Nile making a line-up change, bringing Zach Jeter (guitars, vocals) and Dan Vadim Von (bass, vocals) into the fold.

"It happened near the end of 2023, and it's nothing that makes for good reading (laughs). It was time to find some guys that would be serious and stick around, and can rise to the occasion. The previous guys... there was no personal thing or anything like that. We just needed to make a change. I'm actually getting a little bit tired of training people (laughs). Teaching people Nile songs and expecting them to play them right, that's a tough job. It's a job that doesn't pay extra."

Sanders began work on The Underworld Awaits Us All following his third solo album, Saurian Apocalypse, released in July 2022. While he explored his passion for tribal and acoustic soundscapes on that outing, fans can rest assured that Sanders pulled out all the stops for the new Nile record.

"The new one is a non-stop assault of metal; the drumming, the guitar playing, the vocals, the bass playing... it's just an onslaught," he confirms. "There should be no doubt in anybody's mind when they hear this first song, this is going to be a metal record. George (Kollias / drums) and I went back and forth a lot on the songs. We took extra time to really get the guitar and drum core of these songs, making it effective in what they were supposed to do. It was a lot of cutting, honing, shaving, trimming the fat and whatnot."

"I guess by default I am defacto-involved in the production, but only because I'm the guy holding the whip," he adds. "I'd gladly give that whip to someone else. We got a lot of production help from Mark Lewis (engineer); every time George and I had a question we just picked up the phone and called him. He gave us help all the way down the line. His hands are indelibly on this record."

"Making records today compared to 30 years ago, it's a whole different ball of wax. I feel pretty lucky, privileged to have learned the craft old school. The times before you could get computers getting everything fucking perfect, the times you really had to do it. I think it's very apparent on this new record. You can hear the humanity, you can hear the vibe. It's got a certain feeling when you do that, and you can't replicate it with digital computer editing."

Progressive, massive, and relentless in its execution, The Underworld Awaits Us All boasts numerous moving parts, meaning Sanders and his crew had to have a collective focus in the studio. This suggests they must have maintained an enormous amount of discipline in order to keep everything on track.

"It is discipline in a lot of ways," Sanders agrees. "The first thing that comes to mind is keeping the band members focused on the task at hand. A band is like a rowboat in the middle of the ocean, so you'd better make sure that everyone on board is using that oar to row instead of knocking holes in the bottom of the boat. That's the first challenge. The second challenge is, when you write something and get attached to it, if you have to get rid of a part of the song it's like 'Which part of my child's leg am I going to cut off?' People get attached to the things they contribute, so it takes a certain readiness to be ruthless."

"One of the songs on the last record (Vile Nilotic Rites - 2019) that Brian (Kingsland) had written, the end ride-out had an additional five minutes of guitar soloing. It was probably the best solo playing I've ever heard him do, and it was so good that it made you forget about everything you heard before it. He slaved over that song. It was a tough one for anybody to take apart."

Drums play a prominent role in the Nile sound, and this is no exception on the new album. If anything, Kollias was given more room to unleash his talents. A person's ears have to be godlike in order to sort out all the elements involved and make the music work so it's not just a wall of sound.

Sanders: "You said a mouthful, brother. It's so easy for that wall of violence to turn into a wall of indiscernible noise. I think to varying degrees on past Nile records, the challenge to finding the right balance was elusive sometimes. This time we were determined to make this fucking thing work (laughs)."

Sanders is a gifted and inspired storyteller - it's worth taking a read through the Nile catalogue - which makes it something of a shame that the depth of his lyrics are often lost in the sheer power of the music.

"Not everyone's going to get the lyrics, but hopefully some people will get what I'm doing," says Sanders. "I'm not doing this in an echo-chamber just to hear myself do it. We're doing it for the people who enjoy this kind of thing and understand it, and everyone else is welcome to join us. We're never going to make radical changes to garner new listeners, I don't like music like that. Our radio waves are saturated with cookie-cutter bullshit, so we're doing our thing for ourselves and anybody who wants to join."

Nile is, of course, an acquired taste, but Sanders has heard other bands claiming to have been influenced by their music. He appreciates the sentiment, but he says the adulation has its pros and cons.

"On one hand, I'm happy if the music that we made meant something to somebody enough that they would go, 'Hey, I wanna learn something from this.' That part of it is great. The negative part is when you sometimes hear people lifting stylistic elements but not necessarily providing any substance or doing anything new with it. If you steal a Nile riff and dumb it down, I don't think that's anything positive to the world. If you're going to dumb down some riffs, I'd rather you do that with someone else's riffs than parade around a Nile flag (laughs). I'd rather hear people assimilate their influences and do something new with them. Give something back, contribute something to our world before it destroys itself."

Asked if he looks back on previous Nile records 30 years into the band's career, perhaps reflecting on what they could have done better, Sanders reveals it's not something that interests him in doing.

"There's only a certain amount of that that's constructive. If I put on an older Nile record, I'm going to inescapably hear all the stuff that could have been much better. I can't help but hear it that way. Every once in a while, if I hear some old Nile, I'll think we could have done better, or I'll think 'Hey, that way pretty good.' It cuts both ways. If I sit around with George or Brian and we hear something that makes us say 'We did that right...' that's a good feeling."

"There's always so much that has value before you start introducing self-doubt," he adds. "I think it's more productive to acknowledge the past, but concentrate on doing something good today."

(Photos: Casey Coscarelli)