Event:	Nile: Those Whom The Gods Detest Tour Pt. II
Written by:	Götter
Published:	28.02.2011
Galleries:	Nile: Those Whom The Gods Detest Tour Pt. II - Tapper, Tallinn, Estonia, 24.02.2011 by huntlus (34)

I really hate writing an introduction to a review. As chances are you're here to read one of the following paragraphs anyway, let's just skip the formalities and get to business. Nile and Melechesh visited my country on its national independence day, which in no meaningful way affected their performance. The venue they played in is called Tapper, the only actual metal club in Estonia, and despite the name's possible English meaning, it actually stands for "battle-axe" in Estonian. Three warm-up bands were also supposed to play (Pressure Points, Bibleblack, Goat The Head), of which the two former ones made it, and of none of which I had any prior musical knowledge. All clear? Good, let's begin.

Pressure Points was the first to play. In general, I enjoyed their performance, even if most of the time I was trying to figure out what style they're playing. I got the impression it was related to extreme metal in some distant way, and it was pleasantly heavy and technical. However, much of it left me confused, as the vocalist looked and sounded like he should've been in a German power metal band, with his tall and handsome appearance and constant clean vocals. These vocals, and those of the band members that occasionally backed him, were bad to the point of being ridiculous. Thank God the growls were okay and the music intense enough to subdue any protest among the crowds among whom interest in non-pussy-music dominated. Metal-archives tells me Pressure Points are supposed to play progressive death metal, which is bullshit, at least the latter part of the term. But whatever the band played, I enjoyed, so I'll move on...



Bibleblack is a tad more famous - at least I'd heard their name before. Their show really got me going. I think it was Bibleblack that benefitted most from the concert hall's excellent acoustics. Every part of their violent high-quality death metal sound came through and, if you pardon me saying, gave me a hard-on. The vocals, the thrashing guitars, the hellish overtones - it worked really well. Bibleblack, I think, should be the poster child of devil-worshipping rock'n'roll that modern christians like to fear. I can totally imagine a church-going mother going pale when she catches her children watching a concert vid of Bibleblack, replete with their catchy sound, the obvious confidence with which they perform and, oh, the suits - the black suits that Percy Bysshe Shelley must've foreseen when he claimed that "the devil is a gentleman." A true winner, that Bibleblack, particularly the huge and ominous-looking bass player. But time to move on again.



Enter Melechesh. I've been a fan of the band for ages but sadly they seem a bit unknown in Estonia - at least I haven't heard anyone else mentioning them over the years. This was not reflected in the number of people that dragged themselves closer to the stage. I think the band had reason to be satisfied, even if the tradition of actually headbanging and showing one's enjoyment is lost in these parts. The audience had cause for satisfaction as well, with Melechesh's stage presence and the spewing forth of wholesale musical annihilation. Said stage presence was simply adorable - Ashmedi's trademark way of holding his instrument, his Achmed-the-dead-terrorist'esque vocals and the guys generally looking tiny on stage but somehow managing to fill the room. As for their musick, well, it was furious and relentless and, in a rare manner, almost indistinguishable from the songs' album versions. This came with the band's one perpetual flaw of the vocals being partially drowned by the grinding guitars but, since I'm used to it, no harm was done to the overall quality of the show. Highlights of the set were "The Ghouls of Nineveh," "Triangular Tattvic Fire," and the closer "Rebirth of the Nemesis." I was really looking forward to "A Summoning of Ifrit and Genii," but I guess you can't have everything. What you can have is some Nile, up next.




Interlude: There are strands of irony woven into the tissue of spacetime, and on occasion simple mortals like myself get tangled in them. The last time Nile played in Estonia I managed to miss the show due to illness. This time I decided not to get sick by preparing accordingly. I kept an electric radiator running nights and basically went around wrapped in a woollen scarf for one whole week before the event. The result? My room remained warm and I didn't fall ill. However, the heating system of the concert hall malfunctioned just before the show and some members of Nile had caught flu. Think about it, will you?

Nile still performed, even if the set was short as with the other three bands and Sanders was spotted coughing several times. I don't recall the entire list - I don't have the memory for it - but most of the important songs were played, along with some surprises, such as "Serpent Headed Mask" that I really didn't hope to hear. And when I said "important songs," I meant the best, in a triple barrage: "Sarcophagus," "Lashed to the Slave Stick," and "Black Seeds of Vengeance," came in a row, closing the set, sounding wicked awesome. However, this is not to devalue the rest of their repertoire that night - everything was great, even if this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, considering that Nile are objectively the best death metal band around. If I was allowed some artistic freedom to describe the exact nature of the band's performance, I would remind you the proverb "Don't think there are no crocodiles just because the waters are calm." Well, I just said that to sound smart - the waters of Nile were really not calm but raging that fateful night, positively swarming with ithyphallic reptilian monsters all bent on devouring their way into our skulls, while the detesting voices of gods kept telling me to ANOINT MY PHALLUS WITH THE BLOOD OF THE FALLEN. Rarrrgh! Great show! End!