Drummer GEORGE KOLLIAS Says 'Ithyphallic' Is 'The Most Powerful NILE Album Ever'

Australia's PyroMusic.net recently conducted an interview with NILE drummer George Kollias. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

PyroMusic.net: "Annihilation of the Wicked" seemed to be the best received NILE album yet. Did the critical or fan response surprise you at all?

George Kollias: I am really happy when I hear things like that, it means we are getting better and that's the most important thing to us. We always want to make a better album, who doesn't? To me though, each NILE album has a special meaning and differs a lot from the rest so I really can't compare the songwriting but I do believe that "Annihilation" sounds more fresh, which is very natural since it's only a couple years old. I have read some great comments about it and I am very, very happy people liked it that much!

PyroMusic.net: I'm sure! Do you know how "Annihilation" sold, especially compared to past albums?

George Kollias: I know it still sells well, it's not over yet. And it already has done better than our previous albums because the band has gotten bigger.
These days it's really hard to sell because of the Internet, where everybody gets music for free. I think though the true fans got the CD though and this is the thing for me. At the end of the day, most of the fans out there want the original piece.

PyroMusic.net: I won't argue with that, I'm one of those folks! Okay, now that we've covered that, fans are eagerly awaiting the new album in July. What exactly can they expect?

George Kollias: You can expect the most powerful NILE album ever, everything is much stronger this time, we worked harder to be able to deliver a great album and I am pretty sure we did. The new songs are so heavy it's not even funny! (laughs) This album is faster and doomy at the same time, with a variety of tempos which gave a new dimension to our songs, plus the fact that musicianship got out of hand this time. There are many new elements in our music but we definitely have the NILE mark on each song. We are extremely happy with this album, Neil Kernon also did a fantastic job, and the album sounds fantastic! I am pretty sure that our fans will love this one more...

PyroMusic.net: As a huge fan I'm dying to hear it. Can you tell us about the title "Ithyphallic" and the concept behind the album as well?

George Kollias: Yeah, the idea came from a comment we received, somebody said we play "Ithyphallic metal". We liked the idea and kept it for our album. "Ithyphallic" comes from "ithy" and "phallic", both Greek words which symbolize the erection and the glory around it.

PyroMusic.net: In the last year you left the very popular Relapse label and signed with Nuclear Blast instead. Other major players in metal such as CHIMAIRA (worldwide) also recently signed with the label. What was the reasoning behind the decision, and were you close to signing with another label, or was NB the logical choice for you guys?

George Kollias: Bigger interest and better offer, that's the only reason. After "Annihilation" NILE was in a position that needed the big push and since our contract with Relapse was over we had some really good offers from many labels. Nuclear Blast showed us that they care about us and we believed in them.

PyroMusic.net: Even at this early stage, how is the relationship with the label going?

George Kollias: Oh, it's awesome, they really care about NILE and they loved the new album, they are same excited like we are and that's very important. We have a great team and I believe we will do some great things together. They want to push NILE really far right now and we are ready to get out there and play some metal!

Read the entire interview at PyroMusic.net.