Engineer ERIK RUTAN Talks About New NILE Album

Chris Dick of Decibel magazine recently conducted an interview with producer/engineer Erik Rutan (CANNIBAL CORPSE, MORBID ANGEL) about his work on the upcoming NILE album, "Those Whom The Gods Detest". An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Decibel: What impressed you about the upcoming NILE record?

Erik Rutan: First of all, working with NILE in any capacity is something great. The collaboration with [producer] Neil [Kernon; CANNIBAL CORPSE, NEVERMORE, DEICIDE] is just awesome. I'm used to manning the ship all the time, so having someone like Neil, who is obviously a well-known producer, was really cool. NILE is one of the best death metal bands out there, they're great guys and incredible musicians. To get the call that they were going to do drums at Mana, I was totally stoked about it. I didn't hear any pre-production before they came in. I normally get pre-production months in advance. My role for this record was engineering drums. George's [Kollias] drums were huge. It was a massive beast of a kit, befitting a massive beast of a drummer. He came in and tore the place apart. He's one of the best death metal drummers I've worked with and I've worked with the best. It was an intense session with some intense people. The drum takes, the performances, the tones came out stellar. Just having all those ears on things was a great experience. Because of the collaboration the drums came out incredible.

Decibel: So, you just engineered the drums?

Rutan: Yeah. That's it. We made sure all the click tracks were in place for the drums. We laid down some scratch guitars for the songs. They were open to any suggestions I made as far as ideas for the songs. It was an open game for everyone to comment on things. My role was engineer though.

Decibel: Why do you think they called you for the drums?

Rutan: There are a lot of great engineers out there, so I'm sure someone else would've done a great job. But they love the studio. I have a nice facility. I have a pretty big drum room. It's exclusively for drums. I've always played with incredible drummers throughout my career. I'm also lucky to have produced some amazing drummers. Certainly, when it comes to death metal drumming, I understand it. I understand guitars, bass, and vocals too. You name it! I feel like I have a great grasp on death metal. I've always wanted to work with NILE. I guess they felt the same. I look at it this way, I wasn't sure what my involvement was going to be, but I wanted to be involved. In any way. They've always been hard working, dedicated guys. I remember they drove all the way across the country to play with us on the MORBID ANGEL tour. So, to see them succeed over the last decade and end up down here to record is really awesome.

Read more from Decibel magazine/

NILE guitarist/vocalist Karl Sanders told Exclaim! magazine last month about the recording process for the band's's new album, which is due in November via Nuclear Blast Records, "Gruelling. Exhausting. This album has consumed 12 to 14 hours of my life every day since May . . . We started off in pre-production in Greenville, South Carolina, then relocated to Tampa to work with Erik Rutan on recording drums. At the moment, we are in Greenville, just finished slaving away on rhythm guitars. When we finish vocals, bass, leads and so forth, we will go up to Chicago at Rax Trax to mix."

He added, "Musically, the new disc is unrelenting, overwhelming brutality, with lots of various Eastern influences. Lyrically there are new and interesting influences from various Middle Eastern cultures."