Saurian Meditation

For those of you who don't know who Karl Sanders is, he is the guitarist and vocalist of the brutal death metal outfit Nile. "Saurian Meditation" is his first solo release. What Nile fans should not expect from this release is an album in the vein of "Black Seeds of Vengeance" or "In Their Darkened Shrines", which is what I was expecting. After the third track, I realized I was only getting some elements of Nile. In fact, what Karl Sanders has to offer on "Saurian Meditation" is very similar to what Opeth did on "Damnation". Karl Sanders has taken what is an integral part of the Nile song structures and writing process, and expanded on it. In fact, these passages are what give Nile their identity; the influence of Egyptian music and how it's incorporated into their brutal death assault. On "Saurian Meditation", Sanders takes the style of the more melodic, slower, passages used on Nile albums and concentrates solely on that. No death metal to be found anywhere here. The listener is easily enchanted and mesmerized by the acoustic guitars, deep baritone reverb chants, rhythmic drums, pan flutes, gongs and so on. There's even a pretty cool electric guitar solo on "The Elder God Shrine". If you close your eyes while listening to this album you will swear your in Egypt! You feel like you are at some kind of ritual, like a sacrifice, a funeral or hypnotic dance by some really hot belly dancer!. This music would be well suited for movies like "The Mummy" or "Scorpion King". It's very possible some people might get lost or bored with this type of music as there aren't any real time changes or tempo changes within the songs. They end not much different than the way they start. The length of the tracks range from as little as three minutes to as much as nine. The songs are mesmeric, atmospheric and exotic passages that take the listener to an ancient place and time of centuries past. One needs to be in the mood to listen to this type of music and appreciative of this expanded dimension of Karl Sanders talent, whose other side is quite pummeling! I recommend this work of art for those people who have a true sense of musical appreciation.