Nile
TERRORIZER/EXARSIS
EXTREME METAL LEGENDS GO INTO OVERLOAD IN NORTH LONDON
GREEK THRASHERS EXARSIS
[7] clearly have vast, internal reserves of enthusiasm to draw from, but no doubt due to the enduring appeal of the two bands billed above them, the already sizeable crowd that greets them adds an extra boost tonight. Beholden to thrash’s power/speed metal origins, and with a vocalist, Nick Tragakis, hailing from the Bobby ‘Blitz’ Ellsworth school of high-pitched, hysterical doom-mongering, this is an unreconstructed riff-riot. Exarsis may frantically chase the glory days rather than take an imperious, tightly played stance, but they run rampant to a spirited response.
Remaining original member Pete Sandoval isn’t just charged with carrying the formidable legacy of
TERRORIZER [8]; tonight he seems supercharged, blasting out of his skin throughout a set that pits classics from World Downfall like Need To Live against newer tracks such as Hordes Of Zombies that are clearly unburdened by the weight of history. Monstrosity members Lee Harrison and Sam Molina make a formidable front line, and this still sounds like the forge on which the raw material of death and grind were hammered out as anticipation and nostalgia give way to a celebratory immediacy.
NILE [9] are somewhat more regular visitors to these shores, but so unique is the relentless power at their command that, even with this being their first gig here since the departure of Dallas Toller Wade, tonight feels no less of an occasion. From the moment they launch into an oxygen-annihilating Ramses Bringer Of War
– suggesting that this is going to be a career-spanning set – it’s clear that Brian Kingsland is a seamless fit, and tonight is another headlong lurch into hyper-dense delirium. If Behemoth’s technical supremacy creates a centrifugal force, sonically pinning you to the walls, Nile’s ravenous whorl exerts a gravitational pull that feels as though it’s dragging you, black hole-like into some unimaginable singularity at its core. Thankfully, Karl Sanders’ occasionally cheesy, spell-breaking banter is kept to a minimum, as the endless rubble-collapse and rewired riffs of Defiling The Gates Of Ishtar toy with your consciousness as if it were four-dimensional origami and In The Name Of Amum – the sole song from latest album What Should Not Be Unearthed – scythes its atmospheric intro to shreds before offering rare moments of tension and release. Black Seeds Of Vengeance is a closing act of almighty deliverance, fusing a sold-out crowd into one chanting mass. This is death metal taken beyond reckoning, and into a state of reality-warping bliss.
JONATHAN SELZER