In the past few weeks since the release of Nile's Fear's sophomore album, they have quickly become a force to reckon with in the music industry. Their second album, 'Human Death Fields' recently reached 1 million copies sold worldwide, 380,000 in Australia alone, and has signified a second generation of prog metal, brought upon by such influences as The Nimrods and The Black Gates. The band quickly followed up their debut release, 'Hymns of the Fallen', which sold a respectable 500,000, to show the amount of variety they are capable of. If 'Hymns' was 'Kill Em' All', then 'Death Fields' is most certainly 'Ride the Lightning', which leads us to question, where does 'Master of Puppets' come in? Jackson (Lead Guitar) gave a short interview today on the future plans of the band:



Their second album has recently spawned hits such as the melo-death, classical flamenco infused 'Powdered Death', the trippy and mystical 'Ancestral Burial Grounds (Part 1)', which boasts powerful crisp solos, 'Sacrifice Those of the Wicked (Part 2)', a whiplash inducing thrash epic with shred-tastic solos and frantic drum fills, and the acoustic beauty of 'Wash Away the Gore of My Deeds (Part 3)', which evolves into vicious and uncompromising death metal reminiscent of Napalm Death and Cannibal Corpse.

Finally, the band will be re-releasing their debut 'Hymns of the Fallen' on Negative Records to a much higher audience. The tracklisting is as follows:

Disc 1: (OOC: Art coming soon)

Hymns of The Fallen (9:04) -Carver-

A White Line (27:36) -Adler, Araya- (Instrumental)

Warlock (19:35) Araya, Caver, Demmel - The track fades in with a mystical Indian music, with feed back layered on top of itself so that it creates the effect of rising. Jackson and David burst in with a heavy chromatic set of diminished chords, with Matt creating intensely fast feeling by playing polyrythmic triplets in harmony. Over all this insanity Matt lets out a long growl, and Lucas switches between thrashing blast beats and frantic drum soloing. They groove through multiple chugging riffs, after which Matt growls the lyrics to the verse in such an angry tone, you can practically picture arena wide mosh pits. They jam on some melodic arpeggios and riffs before reaching a climactic, face smashing chorus, which is half sung and half growled, similar to 'The Air I breathe' by All that Remains. They loosely come back to the verse and chorus multiple times, with many solos and jamming in between each. Finally smashes through a brutal 6 minutes of "riff soup" as Jackson fondly refers to it.

A Unearthly Infection (13:17) Carver, Adler - Matt and Jackson really had fun with the delay, octave and chorus effects on this one. The song begins with an undistorted guitar part, laden with industrial effects, over which multiple different bass and guitar harmonies are stacked and layered on top of each other at odd intervals, creating a confusing, dazed and sick feeling. Distorted feedback begins to build up in the background, slowly gaining volume until it is the prominent sound (yes, we like this whole feedback thing a lot!). A massive drum fill leads into a passage of heavy chromatic triplets, intense drumming and fuzzy polyrythmic bass. Lucas' double bass kicks in and Matt begins to sing, which is more of a cross between clean singing and shouting, similar to Metallica or Anthrax. Various solos and melodic arpeggios interrupt the pure thrash brutality. During the last 3 minutes, it fades back to clean tones, where Matt takes an impressive acoustic solo, reminding everyone that Jackson isn't the only one with superb guitar chops. This song is just as strong as Warlock, and acts almost as a harmony to the first track, showing how one basic song lay-out can be taken two entirely different ways.

Push Me Through... The Inferno (8:32) Demmel, Araya - A true melodic metal masterpiece from start to finish, this wave of pure sound pummels the listener's ears with machine gun guitars, un-controlled blast beats and savage vocals featuring Matt's signature cross between incredibly melodic singing and thrashy yelling, interwoven with the occasional growl. We really went out of our way to bring in every Peavy Amp, 7-string guitar and distortion pedal on the market for this one. The band employs an interesting set of scales and chords belonging to a long forgotten Turkish style, mixed with flamenco based neo-classical shredding. The real highlight of this particular tune is David's powerful solo, showing that not only is it possible to play at break neck speeds with just your fingers, but that you can add incredible feel and soul to bass playing.

Pray for Closed Arms (17:51) Adler, Araya - Entirely acoustic, this mournful song is a brilliant tribute to all the victims of any disease that causes a long, drawn out and painful death. Lucas feels a particularly strong connection to this song, considering his mother died of cancer after 4 years of suffering. Jackson's greatest strength in his guitar playing is his incredibly powerful acoustic skills, which have a mix of Latin, Spanish and Middle Eastern sounds, hinting at classical training. Through the layering of guitar harmonies, this piece develops beautifully, and practically needs no words to tell the story of someone waking each day in horrible agony, praying for a death which never comes. Lucas displays incredible control over the drums, allowing the rest of the band to provide the context of the song while he gives it texture. One of the best tracks on the album, this song was chosen to show the band's versatility.

Souls Entwined (12:39) Carver, Araya - The only instrumental song on the album. This track fades in with Matt and Jackson playing a harmonized solo, similar to Blackened by Metallica or Side Winder by Avenged Sevenfold, although unlike these two tracks, it slowly fades out alongside a sizzle on the cymbals of the drums. Claps of thunder and rain can be heard in the distance as a set of arpeggios on the lower strings loaded with chorus and the whammy bar kicks in. On the third time through, the rest of the band joins in, Lucas laying down a simple beat and David playing a interesting counter melody, over which Jackson takes a 2 minute solo, switching between slow and melodic tones and flashy shredding laden with sweeping and diminished chords, creating a very dark sound. Slowly the song progresses through many passages, some filled to the top with distorted melodies and solos and some as simple as two or three notes accompanied by various effect pedals. Clear into the 8 minute mark, the tune bursts into full on 3 chord savagery, over which Lucas takes an awe inspiring drum solo that would have Keith Moon and every metal drummer worth his name giving a standing ovation. Lasting almost 3 minutes, the final solo leads into a short burst of chugging riffs and wild guitar harmonics and squeals. The song ends on an abrupt E power chord.

A Farewell to Tyrants (9:01) Carver, Demmel, Adler, Araya - A psychedelic clean guitar chord starts off the track, with David playing a riff quietly, Jackson creating a simple melody line and Lucas creating hair raising tension with simple haunting whispers of the cymbals. As the song progresses bass drums are added and Matt joins David on the riff. Out of nowhere, Jackson and Matt hit a harmonized note, which leads directly into a haevy and distorted version of David's original riff. The band switches multiple between that riff and palm muted chords, the second of which Matt sings over. They pound through a more melodic chorus, featuring an interesting lick that is harmonized. After passing through these two parts, verse and chorus, multiple times, the band goes off jamming on some riffs, and at one point Jackson takes a solo, which fades into Matt singing, accompanied only by an occasional clean chord. The song finishes with the anthemic chorus repeated multiple times. This song is not anti-religion, but simply against the use of religion to control people.

Corpus Christi: Not just a Town (6:57) Adler, Demmel - Our 'Nevermore' track. Clever combination of thrash/death with a almost theatrical sound to it, this track speaks on many levels. The drums manage to achieve heaviness while holding back, allowing the bass to become the backbone of the rythm section for a change. Not to take away from anyone else, but the combination of Matt's growled vocals inter woven with the occasional singing and the chilling guitar playing of Jackson stand out and create a hideously evil feeling in the pit of your stomach. Overall, this is a very strong track and is definitely a possible single.

To the Wolves (13:21) Carver, Demmel - The thrashiest song on the album, this is essentially what an elongated version of Slayer's 'Epidemic', with more melodic passages and the occasional death metal scream. The highlight of this piece is Matt's intensely tight rythm playing, which uses many tritones, chromatic syncopated riffs and diminished chords, creating an evil and dark feel, allowing Jackson to go off and provide all the melody for the song. This particular track features a section where the band fades into clean tones and Matt and Jackson take turns doing acoustic solos, while Lucas pounds away some interesting tribal beats. This eventually builds back up in distortion and heaviness and they enter a breakdown, which leads out of the song.

Disc 2 (Bonus):

The Memory Stains: Methodical Genocide B-side

Crushed Underfoot: Powdered Death B-side

The Words Still Echo: Ancestral Burial Grounds B-side

Plagues to Carry Hope: New Song

This Blackness: Wash Away the Gore of my Deeds B-side

Would?: Alice in Chains Cover

Unfurling a Dark Gospel: Job For A Cowboy Cover

Davidian: Machine Head Cover