Karl Sanders - Saurian Exorcisms

There is no other genre that can match metal for sheer bombastic theatricality. While hipsters are carefully navigating the fretboard, spiked-leather clad bands across the globe are breathing fire, hurling pigs’ heads, burning churches and sacrificing virgins. Well, maybe not all. But while many metal bands get bogged down by the crass cheesiness of it all, some, such as Nile, create a completely immersive mythology which shrouds the group in a suitably ancient aura. On Saurian Exorcisms, Nile frontman Karl Sanders gives us an acoustic rendering of that aesthetic. Odd and archaic instruments and ritualistic arrangements weave between layers and layers of vocal incantation building up to a monumental experience. So often when metal bands turn acoustic, their music loses all theatricality, weight and thrust; but here Sanders creates a world that is every bit as crushing as death metal, with nary a distortion pedal in sight.