There are themes of vengeance running through all those songs. I guess we had four or five songs written before we came up with the actual title for the album and wrote the title track. So we decided to call it Black Seeds Of Vengeance and we had to make an album that lives up to that. So yeah, it's kind of universal. We really wanted to come back with an album that totally kicked ass. We had to take a lot of abuse to get to the position where we are now which was very tough, doing all those tours. Personally, there are many abuses you have to take when you are a struggling band and you know you are an opening act, from the promoters, the other bands, the booking agents, just on down the line. It's just a lot of fucking shit and you have to be tough enough to get in there and take it, do it and have enough to survive, just to get out and play your music for people. It just kind of builds a grudge kind of mentality. Like 'Okay yeah, you can fuck us but when we come back we're gonna fuck you!
Karl Sanders / Nile interview, Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles #44, 2000
NILE released their second album, Black Seeds of Vengeance, on this day in 2000 through Relapse.
"Black Seeds of Vengeance" definitely has the vibe of trying to incite the oppressed masses to reap bloody vengeance. When we're chanting "...Black Seeds of Vengeance, Black Seeds of Vengeance..." and we close our eyes, we can see 10,000 oppressed Egyptians ready to rise up! Dude, our music is a tribute!
There were a lot of underlying motives there. Certainly, we've been working a long time in the underground, struggling & fighting incredible obstacles to play our music. We would also like to think there are a lot of other people, other Metal fans who have stuck by Metal through many hard times. Sometimes it really is difficult to stay a Metal fan when you've got everyone else telling you that Metal isn't cool & Death Metal is dead. Somebody's gotta stand up and say "Fuck You!! We are Metal and we're going to stay Metal!!" There is an element of uniting the brotherhood through this feeling.
Karl Sanders / Nile interview, Promethean Crusade, 2000
...the "Black Seeds Of Vengeance" song really does; it holds great meaning to Dallas, Karl and I, because we truly believe that once somebody wrongs you, that seed will grow, and we'll be there to show them what we are capable of! I also really like the "Nas Akhu Khan..." song, because when I hear that song, I get this crazy picture in my head of us and 50 of our best friends standing around this lake of fire just waiting, trying to conjure up something; it was a really cool song in the studio, because we put a lot of work into it.
Chief Spires / Nile interview, Promethean Crusade, 2000
...it was like a year when we were home before we got back into the studio. A song like "Multitude of Foes", man there were so many re-writes on that one. Dallas just kept putting it down and perfecting the guitar riffs ultimately. That song has probably had those riffs toned to total razor sharpness; every riff is just totally ripping from start to finish. The song "To Dream of Ur" was a monstrous task. I had the idea quite some time ago when Dallas and I would sit backstage on tour and we'd play the riff and monkey with the chords and when we got back home I worked on it at my house and it just grew. I had like 93 tracks on my home demo. I had it split across two computers to do it and it just kept growing and growing and we just went for it.
Karl Sanders / Nile interview, Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles #44, 2000