Event:	Nile: Those Whom The Gods Detest Tour Pt. II
Written by:	Baz Anderson, Promonex
Published:	13.02.2011
Galleries:	Nile, Melechesh - Derby, England, 10th February 2011 by Baz Anderson (38) Nile + Melechesh: Those Whom The Gods Detest Pt. II - Darmstadt, Germany, 30 January 2011 by Promonex (56)

While the revolution was raging in Egypt, a trek of bands, led by an American band inspired by Egyptian mythology and a band with its roots in Israel, was touring through Europe in order to delight the masses with extreme metal music. While the figures are vastly inferior to those in Cairo, the performances of these bands might have caused the same euphoria as the abdication of Egypt's hated ex-president Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak.

Any MetalStormer who has monitored the recent interviews will have guessed, that the aforementioned bands are of course Nile and Melechesh. On the second European tour in the wake of Nile's most recent album Those Whom the Gods Detest they were supported by German thrashers Dew-Scented, the Swedish melodic death/black metal band Zonaria and the Swiss death metal battalion DarkRise. During the first half of the tour Metal Storm managed to catch the shows in Darmstadt, Germany and Derby, England. Read on and find out how our reporters Daniel "Promonex" Pereira and Barry "Baz" Anderson perceived these two events.




Promonex: The venue in Darmstadt, Germany was the Steinbruch Theater, a popular venue in an isolated valley, 4 km outside of the city's center and quite a bitch to get to with public transport. The more I was surprised to see that these five bands managed to almost sell out the venue on a Sunday night, drawing about 300 people.

Barry: The epic Nile and Melechesh tour found itself in the centre of England, in Derby's newest venue Redemption. There had been a big buzz about this show for several weeks beforehand; we only had to hope that expectations would be met.

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Promonex: I've arrived a bit late, so I've only caught the last few songs of DarkRise's show. Unlike with Dyscarnate a few months earlier I didn't really regret this though. The Swiss band played some decent, yet awfully run-of-the-mill brutal death metal. Quite alright for an opener, but definitely not memorable in any way.

Barry: DarkRise were the first band on to a particularly small and uninterested audience. With five bands bill for the evening, no one seemed to want to use this warm-up act to warm up with. The death metal band unfortunately just didn't provide anything of interest.

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Promonex: Zonaria made it a lot better. These Swedes have already performed in the Steinbruch Theater for the third time (after their previous tours with Dark Funeral in 2010 and Pain in 2007). And just like the two previous times they managed to shine not only through their blackened brand of melodic death metal, but especially through their likeable and appreciative attitude. You could clearly tell that the guys had a lot of fun on stage, and they easily managed to infect the audience with their joy.



Barry: Zonaria are a group of young guys, whose music appeared to be aimed at the younger ages. A plastic hybrid of Children Of Bodom and Dimmu Borgir, their music wasn't explicitly offensive to hear, but was a mind-numbingly soulless experience which still didn't excite the slowly growing audience.

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Promonex: Dew-Scented went the extra mile and turned the crowd into a sea of moshing and banging long-haired creatures. Growler Leif Jansen and his guys, which includes touring guitarist Michael Hankel of Holy Moses, delivered a great set of death/thrash which might come across somewhat boring on CD, but really manages to impress in a live environment. The audience at least was very grateful to finally get prepared for what was yet to come.



Barry: You would have thought German thrashers Dew-Scented on next, were surely going to bring the audience to life. The band's music however didn't deviate away from what can only be described as generic. The band had a few cool-sounding moments, but on the whole surprisingly gave a morbid, dreary set that didn't inspire many people to get up and enjoy themselves.



Setlist: Downfall, Arise from Decay, Turn to Ash, Cities of the Dead, Never to Return, A Critical Mass, Soul Poison, Condemnation, Acts of Rage

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Promonex: Oriental black metallers Melechesh came, saw and fucking conquered! Ashmedi and company fired one meloblack grenade after another into the audience and played so unbelievably tight, so unbelievably furious and convincing, that I'm still at a loss for words to describe this beast of a show! Just catch 'em the next time they are in your city or you'll fucking regret it!



Barry: Thankfully, all good things come to those who wait. Melechesh were about to blow the night apart with their Eastern black metal. Ashmedi took the stage full of charisma and put his efforts into waking the static audience up. The venue was quite full at this point, but this was the first time Melechesh have played in the UK, and it showed. The audience certainly took notice of the band, but generally seemed to be standing and watching in a perplexed but entertained state. Musically Melechesh were a mile apart from the other bands before them, and in some ways the last band too. This was absolute top quality extreme metal, from a band criminally overlooked in these parts.



Setlist: Illumination: The Face of Shamash, Sacred Geometry, Deluge of Delusional Dreams, Ladders to Sumeria, Grand Gathas of Baal Sin, Triangular Tattvic Fire, Ghouls of Nineveh, Rebirth of the Nemesis

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Promonex: Headliners Nile were the last to play the stage. Mastermind Karl Sanders appeared very static and reserved while his comrades-in-arms Dallas Toler-Wade and Chris Lollis were even more outgoing. Their interaction with the crowd, some subtle jests ("The next song is called Permitting the Noble Dead to Descend to Darmstadt!") and their occasional ritualistic movements definitely gave them an elevated appearance while Karl only complained about "all those silly people in the first row taping this show", requesting them to just enjoy the show as everyone else. This happened just before the song "4th Arra of Dagon", a song "even the Swiss kicked ass to" according to Karl. All critique towards his audience aside, it definitely is an awesome song to shout along to, even though the first half is rather slow. In fact the whole setlist was rather slow on average. Perhaps Nile wanted to be different from the other bands, but this way their brutal turned to boring at times. Don't be fooled, they played very tight and if it wasn't for Melechesh stealing their thunder, they would've definitely been the best band of the night. Some more faster paced songs wouldn't have done any harm though. At least they closed their set with the frantic "Black Seeds of Vengeance" which had everyone shouting along again and at the end, just before the band left the stage without any encore (and let's be honest, all this encore business is somewhat silly), even Karl unbent, shook hands with the first row and let the neck of his guitar fly through the sea of horns.



Barry: The whole show had been about Nile, the audience weren't there for anyone else. The floor soon became packed and annihilation ensued. The audience became volatile, and the venue soon became a sauna. The band's set was built up of mostly newer songs, but although the band remains technically brilliant, their set did drag in the middle. Both "Those Whom The Gods Detest" and "4th Arra Of Dagon" are eight-minute beasts that wouldn't have been missed had they not been there. Regardless of this though, there is no denying that songs like "Permitting The Noble Dead To Descend To The Underworld", and the closing duo of "Lashed To The Slave Stick" and "Black Seeds Of Vengeance" sound absolutely immense with George's unreal drumming thundering through the system. Nile put on a great set, but Melechesh stole the show on this evening.



Setlist: Kafir!, Sacrifice Unto Sebek, Hittite Dung Incantation, Serpent Headed Mask, Ithyphallic, Those Whom the Gods Detest, 4th Arra of Dagon, Permitting the Noble Dead to Descend to the Underworld, Sarcophagus, Lashed to the Slave Stick, Black Seeds of Vengeance

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Thanks to Jaap and Markus for the accreditation.
Written by Barry Anderson and Daniel Pereira.
Photos by Barry Anderson and Daniel Pereira.