Always Warriors

"I come from the old school, where there was a lot of different bands experimenting and trying different stuff, and you didn't necessarily call it this or that,” explains Karl Sanders. “It's metal. I prefer to have it that way, where people weren't necessarily so damn determined to pigeonhole every single thing. You've got stuff that's in multiple categories, so what do you call that? You've got to come up with a really long name for it. It's ultra doom-black-death-speed-thrash – yeah,” he deadpans before bursting into laughter. “Come on, no. It's metal.”

Side-stepping such over-analysis, two decades into a career of carving a distinctive sound and aesthetic, encapsulating an obsession with Egyptology which elicits visions of scarab kings and the Pyramid of Khafre, the American outfit still seeks to reach new audiences. This includes the cross-pollination likely to occur when the band return to Australia alongside tech-death sensations The Faceless, introducing a younger breed of extreme metal fandom to Nile's already well-established brutality.

“Bringing together metal people of all sorts; I think that's a good thing,” Sanders enthuses. “I believe in unity of the metal scene, not busting it apart. We have lots of influences in our sound and what we do, but I don't really care, people can pretty much call it whatever they want to. As long as they buy the records, come to the shows and bang their heads, I'm happy.”

Also bringing him considerable pleasure – and pain – is the mainman's martial arts endeavours. At the time of our conversation, he's supposed to be working on a new solo LP, but has instead been consumed by a tournament. Unfortunately, he's sofa-bound with bags of ice, nursing a groin injury sustained earlier that day.

“I like it because it's tangible, it's real. So many times in the music business you're just faced with people who are talking sideways. But in martial arts, if somebody kicks you in the head, you know you've been kicked in the head. It's real. It's not music business sharks speaking two languages. What really detracts from the enjoyment of playing music is music business bullshit. I love a challenge; it's physically demanding, and you have to get in there and do it. I'm certainly in better shape than I've been in for years; It's an outlet for anger and frustration.”

Is he ever concerned said outlet won't leave him with sufficient fury to channel into Nile? “I've got aggression for days, my friend,” Sanders chuckles. “Just try me. Where does it come from? Fuck, I don't know. Everything in life, probably; there's lots of things to get pissed off about. Certainly our political situation here in the States is really fucked, and it's got a lot of people really angry. So that's a never-ending well. Aggression is inspiration.”