Nile - Live at Redemption, Derby, 10th February 2011

Even though it was little more than a year since Nile last toured the U.K, the South Carolinan death metal stalwarts came back for an extended jaunt of Europe, with four other bands in tow, including Israeli black metallers Melechesh. Although openers Darkrise had some decent riffs and German thrashers Dew Scented gave the crowd a chance to warm up their neck muscles, Melechesh were disappointing - for all the hype (including a recent appearance on the front cover of Zero Tolerance) there wasn't much substance at all, and the reaction was pretty apathetic. None of this mattered though, when Nile took to the stage at 10:15pm.

For any gig to be good the crowd and the band need to feed off each other, and in Derby the synergy was awesome. After a brooding, threatening instrumental intro track consisting of cacophonous horns and militant percussion taken from In Their Darkened Shrines, the gathered masses exploded into a frenetic frenzy upon the start of Kafir. From the opening chant of "There is no god" to the classic set closer Black Seeds of Vengeance the band were positively dripping with vitriolic energy, the three prong vocal attack as potent as ever. Particularly impressive was Serpent Headed Mask, taken off the debut album, a ridiculously concise and brutal song. It says a lot about Nile's consistency that half of the set consisted of their latest works, 2009's Those Whom The Gods Detest, yet the new songs fitted seamlessly into the miasmic maelstrom along with the old classics. The fretboard pyrotechnics unleashed by Dallas, Karl and Chris were staggering to watch live, not to mention George holding it all together with some of the most precise double bass and blastbeats you'll hear.

In the current musical climate there is probably no band as vital in death metal as Nile. The godfathers of the genre Morbid Angel are putting the finishing touches to their first album in eight years - in that time Nile have gone from strength to strength and released some of the most groundbreaking extreme metal imaginable. Morbid Angel originally set the standards of death metal, but now Trey Azagthoth and co. will need to pull something special out of the bag if they are to catch up with Nile...