AMG UPDATE

Eleven reviews of new albums and compilations up at AMG this week:

The Atlas Moth, A Glorified Piece of Blue Sky
Belphegor, Walpurgis Rites: Hexenwahn
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, The Audacity of Hype
Gojira, Terra Incognita
Immortal, All Shall Fall
Leaves' Eyes, Njord
Marduk, Wormwood
Various Artists, D-Funk: Funk, Disco and Boogie Grooves from Germany 1972-2002
Various Artists, Ghana Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds and Ghanaian Blues 1968-1981
Various Artists, Grind Madness At The BBC
Various Artists, Swedish Death Metal

I also wrote up Nile's Those Whom the Gods Detest, but they didn't use it, so I'll just put it here:

Nile
Those Whom the Gods Detest
Nuclear Blast
Nile’s schtick is pretty goofy, even by death metal standards – the band’s leader, guitarist Karl Sanders, is obsessed with ancient Egypt, and consequently the Nile discography is littered with Middle Eastern melodies and even vocals and traditional instruments, plus sound effects that seem sampled from the Mummy movies. With that said, they occasionally come up with some pretty decent riffs, and Sanders is a hell of a guitarist; his solos are fleet and relatively non-masturbatory – that is, they seem to have something to do with the song that spawned them. Nile albums tend to have one or two totally non-metal tracks, and Those Whom the Gods Detest is no exception; “Yezd Desert Ghul Ritual in the Abandoned Towers of Silence” features tribal percussion, creepy sound effects and voices, all intended to create an atmospheric lead in to the next round of blast beats and furious riffing. The title track and “4th Arra of Dagon” are probably the most successful at unifying the various elements of Nile’s style, as they combine traditional instrumentation (or specially tuned guitars, at any rate) with the band’s death metal roar. Overall, this is probably Nile’s best album, but it’s still not going to seem particularly attractive to death metal outsiders.