The face on the cover stares out with the calm of a ruler who has already decided he has no need for the old temples. It is the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, painted by Michal “Xaay” Loranc, and on November 3, 2009, the American death metal band Nile placed that face on their sixth studio album when it arrived in North America. Those Whom the Gods Detest was no ordinary metal record: it was built around a single idea, and every lyric, every riff, every growl pushed toward it.
Karl Sanders and the concept
That idea originated with Karl Sanders, the guitarist and vocalist who penned all the lyrics. The concept was a unified rejection of all gods, and Sanders stated that metalheads are the people whom gods hate. In the album booklet, he included his own commentary explaining the songs, the first time Nile had done so since Annihilation of the Wicked in 2005. This commentary transformed the record into something akin to a manifesto—a statement on what it means to stand outside every altar.
The music matched that ambition. Sanders and drummer George Kollias wrote most of the songs, and the band recorded the drums at Mana Recording in Tampa, Florida, with Erik Rutan overseeing the sessions. The remainder was captured at Serpent Headed Studios/OTB in Greenville, South Carolina, throughout 2008 and 2009. Producer Neil Kernon handled the mix, shaping a technical death metal sound that needed both speed and weight.
Nile did not create the album alone. Five guest vocalists joined the sessions: Mike Breazale, Chief Spires, David Meredith, Jon Vesano and Pete Hammoura. Their voices deepened the assault, turning the record into a choral rejection rather than the fury of a single man. The album runs long enough for the concept to breathe, yet remains tight enough that the riffs never lose their edge.
Chart numbers and European release
The record's initial impact was modest on the surface: it debuted at number 160 on the Billboard 200, a small mark for a band that had been honing this sound for years. However, on the Billboard Heatseekers chart, which tracks developing acts, the album climbed to number 3. That split told the real story: Nile wasn't chasing mainstream radio; they were building a following among people who wanted metal that demanded attention. The record also found listeners beyond North America. In Finland, it reached number 35, and in France, it hit number 149—small but telling signs that the album's rejection of every god could travel. Nuclear Blast released it in Europe on November 6, 2009, three days after the North American date.
Critics noticed the weight of the work. Blabbermouth.net awarded the album an 8.5 out of 10, a score that felt like respect for a band pushing technical death metal into conceptual territory. Loranc's cover art also did its job: Akhenaten was the perfect face for an album about rejecting every god at once. Loranc had collaborated with Sanders before, on the solo album Saurian Exorcisms, so he understood the visual language. Other critics measured the album differently. Sputnikmusic gave it a perfect five stars, while Allmusic settled on three and a half stars out of five. The varied scores showed that the record rewarded close listening, even when it failed to win over every reviewer.
What Nile constructed in 2009 was not just another death metal record. It was a record about belonging to those who refuse to kneel, and it arrived with the force of a band that knew exactly who they were making it for. The North American release on November 3 gave that idea its first full day in the world, and the album has carried it ever since.