Nile, Six Feet Under @ Starland Ballroom, Sayreville, New Jersey, US, January 17, 2025 | Under the Radar Magazine Under the Radar | Music Blog for the Indie Music Magazine
Saturday, February 15th, 2025  

Nile

Nile, Six Feet Under

Nile, Six Feet Under @ Starland Ballroom, Sayreville, New Jersey, US, January 17, 2025,

Jan 23, 2025 Photography by Matthew Berlyant Web Exclusive

Given everything going on in the world right now, it’s tempting to travel back in time (at least as much as we can), specifically to ancient Egypt. This is where the long-running, South Carolina-based death metal band Nile, has lived (thematically, down to its very name) since its inception in 1993 and debut album Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka (say that ten times fast) back in 1998. Touring for their excellent 2024 release The Underworld Awaits Us All, Nile played an excellent, eleven-songs, career spanning set that had mainstay founding guitarist Karl Sanders thanking the crowd on several occasions given the rapturous response, large attendance (if it wasn’t sold out, it sure seemed like it or that it was close), and intense reaction their appropriately intense compositions got from said crowd. Long-running (since 2005) drummer George Kollias is an absolute marvel, a beast on the kit, and one of the best drummers I’ve ever had the opportunity to witness. Additionally, the almost inhuman riffing of Sanders and fellow guitarist Zach Jeter is not to be missed as well, and along with bassist Don Vadim Von, all three provides vocals, an unusual setup more akin to Prince’s “1999” pass the baton vocal technique than to anything else in modern death metal. Up the Catacombs!

Not to be outdone by Nile was co-headliner Six Feet Under, the long-running band led by original Cannibal Corpse vocalist and lyricist Chris Barnes and now featuring former Cannibal Corpse guitarist Jack Owen. Touring in the U.S. for the first time in twelve years, their set interestingly concentrated heavily on their debut, 1995’s Haunted (which featured Allen West of Obituary and Terry Butler of Obituary, Death, and several others). And this, combined with “covers” of two early Cannibal Corpse songs (including “Hammer Smashed Face,” as seen in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective) at the end of their set, as well as a cover of NWOBHM band Holocaust’s “Death or Glory,” all but ensured a massively enjoyable set for lovers of both old school death metal and even perhaps some “trad” metal fans as well.

Six Feet Under
Six Feet Under

It should also be noted that despite criticism for some of his vocal performances on record and live, Barnes’ unique vocal affectations (IYKYK) do absolutely nothing to deter this writer’s enjoyment of this set and of Six Feet Under’s best material in general. And furthermore, it was endearing to hear him say that he “loves each and every one of us” after telling the crowd he was battling the flu to keep on going to the end of the tour. At the end of the day, it’s hard not to give it up to a lifer who’s helped create some of death metal’s most extreme catalogs of music.







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