Nile and Ex Deo Bring History on the Road

"I want to take the time to say how great it is to explore history with you guys," Ex Deo frontman Maurizio Iacono told the crowd at Sonar in Baltimore. Iacono, who is better known for his vocal duties in Canadian death metal band Kataklysm, believes you have to understand the past to be prepared to the future. Ex Deo like to revisit the Roman empire in their songs.

And on Nov. 2, with everyone still over-sugared and hungover, Ex Deo weren't the only metal mavens with the past in mind. Nile revisited history, too -- just one that was much closer to the present.

"It doesn't sound the way it did earlier," Nile bassist Chris Lollis said to the person working front of house. The sound person tried to explain to him the difference between sound in an empty room and sound in a room full of people. Other factors, like satanism, have an effect as well.

Nile, as evidenced by the name, didn't take too long to get into the Egyptology, however. In the most delightful treat of the night, the audience was presented with 'Serpent Headed Mask,' a song from 1998's 'Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka.'

"This is a death metal crowd!" Lollis excitedly responded to the equally-excited fans. I guess he forgot that Baltimore is home of death metal's biggest party of the year: Maryland Death Fest.

No matter how tightly the dudes of Nile can shred or how big of a smile guitarist Karl Sanders can give the crowd or even how quickly guitarist Dallas Toler-Wade can make a joke, the band cannot escape technical difficulties. After a mic failed, the band talked about how there is no music equipment made for death metal -- a saying Toler-Wade attributed to one of their crew members.

You can catch Nile on the road with Ex Deo, Psycroptic, Keep of Kalessin and Pathology throughout November. If you haven't yet, be sure to pick up Nile's latest album, 'Those Whom the God's Detest.'