Concert Reviews

Nile - Insanity
Mar 24th 2013

Slim's, San Francisco, CA, USA

I had seen Nile recently, but this tour was a special tour where they'd be doing 2 sets including a lot of older material to celebrate their 20th Anniversary, so I couldn't miss this one.

One opener, a band called Insanity, my first impression was "Wow, they sound just like late 80s death metal. Then I found out, they were in fact a band from the late eighties. Seems like they've been around awhile, but never made it that big I guess, as they're only now releasing their 3rd album. Not really my thing, they sounded a lot like Napalm Death's first few albums, I was more a child of the early 90s death metal. Also, the bass was non existent. But I appreciate that Nile had them play, seems like a band whose been around this long deserves to get their music out there.

Then Nile took the stage for their first of two sets. The first set was newer stuff, 3 songs off the latest "At The Gate Of Sethu", songs such as 'Enduring The Eternal Molestation Of Flame' and 'Supreme Humanism Of Megalomania'. They played their song with the longest title: 'Papyrus Containing the Spell to Preserve Its Possessor Against Attacks From He Who Is In the Water'. Also 'Kafir !', and a fantastic version of '4th Arra Of Dagon', love the ending bit with the fast double bass, slow guitar, and chanting. After about an hour they took a short break, followed by the second hour long set. Lots of classics here form their first few albums, including 'Smashing The Antiu', 'The Howling Of The Jinn', even some material from their earlier demos "In The Beginning". Highlights also included 'Defiling the Gates of Ishtar', I love the sung vocals at the end, and everyone in the crowd joined in vigorously. And they ended the show with "Black Seeds Of Vengeance."

Performance wise, everyone was in top form, and it's crazy to think of the drummer George playing that fast for close to 2 hours. Right towards the end I saw him smiling at someone off stage, I don't know if that was a "this is easy" smile, or a "thank god this is almost over" smile. Sound was decent, although the bass drum was lower in the mix than they were last time. But you could sure hear that snare clearly, with every super fast blast. The show is definitely worth going to, and this may be the last time you hear some of these songs played for awhile, so get out there and check this tour out!

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