Today is the 37th birthday of Christian Älvestam. What’s that? You don’t recognise the name of the vocalist of more than a dozen metal bands? Who’s done guest vocal spots for everyone from Bloodbath to Demon Hunter? The former frontman of Scar Symmetry? No? Well, in that case, this week’s Sunday Spotify Slaylist is going to be something of an education for you.
If Morbid Angel, Death, Obituary and Deicide are the ‘Big Four’ of death metal, it’d be nice to think that Nile are like the Machine Heads of that sub-genre. Sounds weird but think about – strong influences from the ’80s movement but also very popular for bringing something different to the table, eg. more blast beats, Ancient Egyptian mysticism. With all the political upheaval in Egypt over the past few weeks, we thought it’d be a great time to go and catch some Middle Eastern-flavoured death metal.