AMG Review of Treasures from the Catacombs

Stewart Mason
All Music Guide

By this point, anyone coming to a Nile record should know exactly what they're there for: assaultive death metal mixed with lyrics informed by Egyptian mythology and occasional interpolations of Middle Eastern folk melodies among the death growl vocals and blitzkrieg riffs. Treasures from the Catacombs is, in the best possible sense, pretty much exactly the same. Centered by the nearly 12-minute epic "Unas Slayer" (which starts with a lovely but foreboding acoustic instrumental rudely split in half by the barrage of grunts and blastbeat drums), Treasures from the Catacombs delivers the goods exactly as Nile's fans expect them to. Which of course also means that those who have been unmoved by the group's previous work won't find anything here to change their minds.