This time though, Nile were the headliners of the evening towing a huge string of supporting acts including With Passion, Decapitated, Raging Speedhorn, Soilent Green and Hypocrisy. The House of Blues was probably only three quarters full and by the time Soilent Green and Hypocrisy were done with the crowd. It still wasn’t enough, they were frantic and restless with plenty of moshing and headbanging left in them.
Nile burst into their set with "The Blessed Dead" and "Execration Text", the first two songs from 2002's smash "In Their Darkened Shrines". Nile, as always, is very technically proficient live, executing all their songs nearly flawlessly. Unfortunately, they did suffer from a poor sound that fluctuated through the entire set. Next digging back even further to '98's "Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka" and pulling out "Serpent Headed Mask", was a smart choice and a stamp of approval by the crowd.
It wasn't until this point that Nile introduced the audience to songs from their new album "Annihilation of the Wicked" laying down "Cast Down the Heretic", "User Maat Re", and "Sacrifice Unto Sebek" in succession. The transition between older songs and the new ones was almost seamless and it’s clear that these fit into Nile's repertoire quite snuggly.
Frontman Dallas was doing his best keeping the crowd going in between their lengthy breaks between songs. At a point near the middle of their set, before introducing the band he encouraged the Chicago crowd with, "I've said it before and I'll say it again...There's nowhere I'd rather be than in a room full of metal heads!" It did the trick in keeping everyone going nuts.
Those of you that have seen Nile live know that they don't exactly have the most energetic stage show. The crowd too seemed a little more subdued this evening, with less moshing and headbanging than for some of the earlier bands. However, whenever a song ended, a whole wave of fists along with an equal collection of hands flashing the horns would rise from the crowd. These were their true fans; everyone knew that "Black Seeds of Vengeance" was coming after "Annihilation of the Wicked". "Growl as evil and deep as possible", Dallas ordered just before going into “Black Seeds of Vengence”. And everyone did. "See how fuckin powerful and evil you are? God damn that's evil.
After "Seeds..." they played a heavy rendition of "Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten", which was by far their best performance of the evening. Perhaps due to the fact that the tempo is a more mid-paced, separating it easily from the rest of the set or it just seemed right for that very moment.
All in all, it was a good show, bad sound not withstanding. All the bands came out to bring the noise, the fans came to support the metal and that is for sure a good enough fix for at least another six months.
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