Nile’s influential third album, In Their Darkened Shrines turned 20 this year and we have commentary from guitarist/vocalist Karl Sanders. Check it out below and let us know your thoughts on the record!

First of all, how does it feel knowing In Their Darkened Shrines turned 20 this year?

Thank you for speaking with me today! Somewhat surreal is how I feel about Darkened Shrines being 20 years old. Time seems to fly by when one is busy, so it doesn’t feel to me like 20 years has gone by.

How did you feel when the album came out?

Happy, but broke. I remember leaving Soundlab Studios after we finished the mix on Darkened Shrines, and driving straight to the pawn shop and having to pawn our guitars to be able to pay the bills. Relapse had been REALLY, REALLY late paying us the money they owed us, and we were super focused on getting the record finished. We were hanging on by a thread, in the studio for a couple months – not earning while working on the record 24/7.

Meanwhile, all the bills had been piling up. We made that drive home, knowing we had just made a killer album, but dead broke, and it was time to pay the rent back home and provide for our families. It was a completely deflating feeling – a test of resolve – pawning ones guitars when we had literally just came from the studio making the record of a lifetime. I will never forget that feeling, or the deep life lessons learned from it.

Where do you think the album fits in the band's legacy?

To my mind, it was kind of the culmination of the early phase of the band. I felt like Darkened Shrines represented the pinnacle of the first three records and that way of writing Nile songs. Afterwards it would be time to explore a slightly different approach. Another thing that I just knew in my bones, was that that lineup was too good to last, and we needed to get that album done and tour it sooner rather than later.

How did the band approach writing? What inspired the lyrics?

Back then was an evolved version of the classic Nile approach. Lyrics first, then band members would make demos of the song musical ideas, and the songs would get further refined in the rehearsal room. We wouldn’t record until we were happy with how the songs sounded in the band room.

Do any of the themes touched on the album still hold relevant for you?

Well, yeah sure. A lot of the songs are inspired by the Ancient Egyptian Texts – The Book of the Dead, The Book of Gates, The Book of that Which is in the Underworld, From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt, The Pyramid Texts.

What were your hopes and expectations for the record during the writing and recording process?

The hopes and expectations were simply to bring the ideas to life, and push forward in terms of capturing what the band was capable of. We were full of hope about the possibilities with the new lineup at the time, and really, really focused on what we were doing.

When was the last time you listened to the record? Are there memories and emotions that come back?

It’s been awhile since I have had time to enjoy it. We still play some of those songs in the live set, which is always fun. The emotions and memories I associate with it are mixed – between being happy with the songs/album, and the bond that album created with fans – with hearing the aspects of the recording itself, and how of course we are more experienced making records nowadays and we could certainly do a better job with the mix.

I also remember the many triumphs and traumas involved in making that record. Relapse did some really good things, but also some not so good things. Like the unified imagery that we worked together came up for the album and the presentation was iconic and really captured the essence of what the band was all about.

What do you remember most about making the album?

Mike Breazeale walking into the Sound lab studio on “guest vocalist night” and nailing the Unas vocal in 1 or 2 takes. Magic stuff. The time spent hanging out with Jon Vesano and Bob Moore. Bob had to really innovate on his feet, right there in the moment, to find ways to record some of the more unusual aspects of that record. I also remember how happy and blessed we felt working with Tony, who at that time was really in the zone with his drumming and focus. I also remember the long nights and days spent writing the songs. Long months of really honing and refining those songs during the writing phase.

I think it makes a huge difference in the cohesiveness of the songs, that there was so much time spent ruthlessly chopping out the unnecessary stuff in the song, and discovering the hidden, yet unrevealed other aspects of the compositions. Recognizing the deeper potential of a song only comes from willingness to rip the songs apart mercilessly – so that the songs each do what they are meant to do.

Were there any bands in particular you enjoyed playing with while touring for the record?

So many. Cradle of Filth were great guys, Napalm Death, Strapping Young Lad, Hate Eternal, Immolation, Krisiun. But there were too many to name them all. We would be name dropping all day. It was a great time to be playing metal.

How did things change for the band after the album came out?

Well, it became impossible to keep our day jobs. Every time we would go out on tour, we would come home and have to find new jobs. After years of that, we finally just said – quite naively – “wait a minute, why don’t we just tour more, and that problem will take care of itself.”

Which of course, completely changes the nature of things. And then there was – as soon as the band made some forward progress in terms of growing the audience – the rise of the haters. It was something I was not really prepared for. I knew Shrines was a great record. And I was happy to have fans enjoy, but with that growing amount of increasing publicity, was a corresponding, proportional amount of hater hate. I still have trouble understanding why some people feel its their duty to go all keyboard warrior about music they don’t enjoy, but there ya go. One has to take the bad with the good.

Do you remember what you were listening to at the time?

Not really.

Do you think of the album any differently now than you did when you recorded it?

Well, I am at the stage nowadays, where I can look back at Shrines and be genuinely happy, cause the music has come to be meaningful to the fans. And that’s really the entire purpose in a nutshell – we ultimately wanted to make some music that metal fans would enjoy. And we did it our way. For better or worse. Shrines has a very distinct vibe, and an ancient soul coursing through it, permeating it on an essential, fundamental level. That spirit is immediately apparent even on first listen, and I think it's what music fans respond to. The feeling.

Did you ever expect the album to have the influence it did?

At the time, we weren’t thinking at all in those terms. We were just trying to do OUR thing, bring what WE had to the table. That fans embraced the record meant the world to us, and was very much life affirming. I don’t know how I feel that many other bands would find inspiration in those songs; when I hear a young band and I hear some obvious riff or idea that I know was lifted right outta Shrines, it feels a little weird. It seems almost like “go steal your own riffs”, lol. But then again, there were plenty of bands that inspired us. Like Candlemass and the Unas riff. So I guess music is a big circle in some ways. But as far as Darkened Shrines, we are pretty happy with the life of the album.

It has become somewhat of a classic among metal fans, and those songs are both fun to play live, and fun for the audiences. It feels pretty good that we managed to get something right, because making albums is full of lots of unexpected results. There are so many variables completely beyond one’s direct control. Sometimes the songs don’t work the way one intends.

It’s also possible to feel great about the songs, strong performances, and maybe the mix goes astray. Or the mastering guy is on vacation. There are 1000 ways to kill a record. But, I guess the Universe was in alignment for Darkened Shrines. It's not a perfect record, but all in all it’s a record that we are really grateful that it has come to mean so much for fans.