I just fucking love Nile, everything about them kick ass, so I definately thought they kicked ass live. I’ve been told that Nile are the current leaders of putting on live Death Metal shows and that is completely the truth.
Artists:Nile w/ Arch Enemy, Hate Eternal, Origin
Location: SiN13 San Antonio, TX
Vile
I’m still a big fan of live shows, especially Death Metal shows. A lot of people I’ve talked with have grown tired with them, hearing the same shit over and over and over. But not with me. There is just something about that night, the night of a show. You arrive with tickets in hand, get a few drinks in you, then the lights dim and the band comes out. You smell a cologne of cigarettes and weed mixed with the sweat of some violent motherfuckers killing people in the pit.
You look down at your T-shirt, not knowing if that blood stain is your blood or someone else’s. You look up onstage to see one man screaming as if someone is killing him, guitarists headbanging like they are trying to snap off their own necks, and some guy is beating as fast as he can on a drumset. You feel as if your head will explode any second. Ah, nothing like a good ole’ live show.
One of the biggest tours of the year (at least for me) is the ITDS Tour, featuring GODS of Death Metal : Nile and Hate Eternal with Arch Enemy and Origin. I was really looking forward to seeing Origin play after hearing their recent CD, but I had heard they couldn’t make it.
So I was pleasantly surprised when they showed up! When Hate Eternal later came out, the place started getting crazy. Arch Enemy caused a lot of people to get in the head-banging spirit and Nile just fucking destroyed.
I had called SiN13 earlier that day and was told by some guy working the phones that the show would start at 8:30pm, so I arrived at 8:00 on the dot along with many others. We ended up waiting for around an hour before the show started at 9. Shitheads.
One second after I finally made it into the club, Origin came out and exploded. I was expecting some shitty band to fill in for them, but after recognizing the song and the musicians, I was ready to kick some ass. I immediately ran up to check out drummer John Longstreth, I still couldn’t believe all of what I was hearing on their CD. Let me tell you, that shit is true, this guy is fucking amazing.
He was playing extremely fast and complicated shit, all with a “Eh.” look on his face and doing it like it was riding a bike. I also got a nice close-up viewing of their bassist and finally got to actually HEAR HIM, which you really can’t on their CD. After 1 song, in the middle of their second the fucking power went out onstage and everyone but the bassist and drummer could be heard.
So they both started jamming and put on a cool little duet to give us something to listen to while shit was fixed. They finally got all the power back and exploded our eardrums once more.
They played what you would expect: “Portal”, “Inhuman”, “Disease Called Man” and had to end after a few songs after taking up too much time because of the power outage thing. I was definately disappointed I couldn’t hear more, but Origin was the opening band, so they probably wouldn’t have played longer anyway. So, after shaking the vocalist’s and guitarist’s hands, and bellowing an approval to John who was tearing down his drumset, they were out. A definite highlight of the show.
Hate Eternal came out next, which surprised me because I thought Arch Enemy would open for them. Whatever, Hate Eternal killed everyone at the show. I got an up-close-and-personal view of Eric fucking Rutan and of Jared Anderson going crazy on the bass. But after just a few seconds into their first song, we all knew something was wrong. Eric’s mic was fucked.
I think he realized it mid-song and just decided to fucking scream it out. Again, we had to wait while shit was fixed. I yelled out to drummer Derrek Roddy and he smiled back. Someone shouted out “MORBID ANGEL!” and the crowd burst into laughter, including the band themselves, Eric even cracking a hint of a smile.
After the fix, Hate Eternal got back to what they do best : KICKING ASS. Lead vocalist/guitarist yelled at the crowd, “Jesus Christ, you look like a morgue out there, FUCK!” but after the bad microphone interruption and the previous interruption with Origin, it would take us just a bit to get back into the killing mood. Quickly we did and the band noticed it, which got everyone crazy. You could see the violence and hate in Eric’s and Jared’s eyes while they were screaming and playing, TRUE DEATH METAL.
Derrek Roddy played just as great, destroying his drumkit easily. Whenever you see a band live, it’s almost always 10x faster and 100x more brutal, so this shit was just insane. Amazing performance from all of them, I truly can’t wait for their new material.
Then we waited. And waited. And waited. Arch Enemy took their sweet-fucking-assed time getting out there and setting up, way longer than the previous bands. As the time was getting closer to AE playing, I noticed a shitload of COUPLES coming up to the front, along with lots of single females.
Then Arch Enemy finally came out and got right into things. Now, I don’t know if it was the long wait, or that I hadn’t heard alot of Arch Enemy songs previous to the show, but once they started playing I just got a shitty feeling. Vocalist Angela Gossow was definately giving it her all, screaming her guts out, as well as the rest of the band, but I just wasn’t feeling it.
Maybe it was the fucking couples standing around me all of a sudden, headbanging ridiculously. I felt like shouting at them, “Where the fuck were you all when ORIGIN was out here? Where the fuck were you all when HATE ETERNAL was out here?” I don’t know, I just didn’t like it and I got the fuck out of there and went to take a shit. I went and bought a T-shirt and got something to drink and waited outside the pit until AE finished. I mean, the instrumental playing has me interested, I’ll probably try to listen to a few songs later, but they just didn’t do it for me that night.
FINALLY. NILE. THE MASTERS OF EGYPTIAN-DEATH METAL (but do they really have any competition?). Yes, they also took awhile to set-up, but with all that computer shit they use it’s understandable. I just fucking love Nile, everything about them kick ass, so I definately thought they kicked ass live.
Their new vocalist was just as good as Chief Spires, no problems at all. I’ve been told that Nile are the current leaders of putting on live Death Metal shows and that is completely the truth. They played a nice combination of old songs and new songs, and the new songs KILLED. The band was fucking tight, they totally ‘A-NILE-ATED’ the place!!!
Overall, this show was mind-blowing. If I didn’t already have Hate Eternal’s and Nile’s CDs, I would have killed a man to buy them. While Arch Enemy wasn’t quite my thing, I got the impression from the fans around me that they kicked ass as well.
This tour has just started and if you like Death Metal you had better be looking for tickets as soon as you stop reading this. This is not to be missed, I would have killed myself if I missed it. I was charged $18 for the show and it was a steal for all the brutality that night. THE TOUR of 2002.