Artist: Nile
Venue: B.B. King Blues Club – NYC
Opener: Hypocrisy
Date: 2/6/2006
Label: Relapse Records

The appearance of Nile and Hypocrisy would be the first adventure into the Death Metal world that I would take in 2006 and to be honest I could not think of two more formidable bands to be featured on one bill. The venue would be the ever stalwart supporter of Metal (B.B. King Blues Club) and the tour billed as “The Annihilation Tour” would be just that. It is named after the new Nile release “Annihilation Of The Wicked”. Openers Soilent Green, Raging Speedhorn and Decapitated would also be performing and the full room very early in the night was a great sign of the level of interest this show had. I missed Decapitated in their entirety and some friends told me that they truly kicked some ass. I did catch SPV Records artist Raging Speedhorn and found them to be as energetic and intense live as Soilent Green. However, both bands are on the new side for my listening and will be looked more into in the future. Through all of these sets of brutality you could see the response positive and feel the excitement as they were getting ready for Hypocrisy and Nile.

“Virus” is the new album by Hypocrisy and they would be supporting it tonight. If you are a fan of the Death Metal sound but are open enough to expanding the genre then this album is exactly what you are looking for. There is nothing typical about the release and in conversation with Peter Tagtgren backstage we asked him about this. “Keeping Hypocrisy different allows me to be more creative, doing the same thing over an over can get boring” he said when discussing how the expected levels of a Death Metal record are defied on a Hypocrisy album. He also discussed his Producers role in respect to Dimmu Borgir and Dark Funeral. “I don’t think I will doing as much of this for awhile, so I can focus more on the music itself”. We countered that his success at this work was a great thing for Metal as opposed to someone in Rap music who makes their “productions” by simply placing samples of others music together and calling it their own genius. He agreed that it was a little different and perhaps can still be done if time allows for all of it. At showtime Hypocrisy hit the stage to an incredibly loud crowd. The last time I saw them was as one of the openers for Soilwork and the set was all too short. Tonight we would get to see material from both “Virus” and “The Arrival” and in the concert setting this music is much more powerful and incredible. Drummer Horgh from Immortal is truly amazing with his blast beats and thundering double bass drums. The line up is rounded out by guitarist Andreas Holma and bassist Mikael Hedlund. Overall a very powerful group that delivers best in the live sense. Watching this performance and feeling the energy up front only firms my belief that Hypocrisy is one of those bands that will continue to stand out in the Progressive Death Metal genre. I could not see a set list on stage but what we captured seems to be the majority of it. Buying any of the releases will give you the idea of the songs. For a little over an hour the audience received their money’s worth and that is not an understatement.

Nile came on for their headlining spot and it surprised me to see a fair amount of people leave the club. I admit that I don’t follow them but can say that their album is brutal and usually what the supporters would want from a band of this caliber. The latest album on Relapse Records is truly intense and with semi-new drummer George Kollias this is more possible. I could not even stop to catch my breath to see what he was doing on the kit as every movement was a blur. Dallas Toler-Wade is the main vocalist and growls through the whole set. Karl Sanders the lead guitarist also helps out on vocals and writes most of the Egyptian history based lyrics based on his love for the era. Not only would they be performing songs from the new album but also from their other releases “In Their Darkened Shrines”, and “Black Seeds of Vengeance”. I admit I am not the biggest fan yet but I admire their level of power and display during a show. Nile is perhaps one of the best straight ahead Death Metal bands of today. Despite this I would have reversed the line up to have Hypocrisy headlining as I feel it’s a little more of an interesting band.

Hypocrisy Set List:
1. Warpath
2. Eraser
3. Fire In The Sky
4. Scrutinized
5. Carved Up
6. Impotent God
7. Roswell 47
8. Let The Knife Do The Talking

Nile Set List:
1. The Blessed Dead
2. Execration Text
3. Serpent Headed Mask
4. Cast Down The Heretic
5. User Maat Re
6. Sacrifice Unto Sebek
7. Masturbating The War God
8. Sarcophagus
9. Kheftiu Asar Butchiu
10. Annihilation Of The Wicked
11. Black Seeds Of Vengeance
12. Unausprechlichen Kulten

Official Web site: www.hypocrisy.tv
Official Web site: www.nile-catacombs.net