Review by Adam M on June 10, 2015.

This is George Kollias’ attempt at solo material and, as there hasn’t been any Nile material in a while, I was excited to give this a spin. I’m pleased to say that the drumming on Invictus is absolutely spectacular and the strongest part of the material. The rest of the musicianship is very tight and complements the songs quite nicely, however.

What I’m most happy about with this album is that it sounds like a great death metal record and not just an outlet for instrumental representation. There is a great deal of focus with these songs as they aim to exert a death metal presence. There is also a crisp and powerful production job that allows these songs to have potency. Since there haven’t been too many great albums from that genre this year, this competes nicely with the Sulphur Aeon and Alkaloid album and brightens things up greatly. Invictus certainly has a good amount of speed and ferocity to compete head to head with the former release in particular. In terms of a comparison to Nile, there is less of a Middle Eastern influence to the music and more of a Medieval one. Thus there is a variety of types of music for fans of that band to listen to now with the addition of this project. The biggest issue with this album is indeed in the lack of originality. Some of the material has been done to a similar extent by numerous other death metal acts. However, the timing of the release of Invictus is appropriate for death metal.

This is certainly not an album to pass over with thoughts that nothing new has been brought to the table. Although it’s difficult to say whether this will be the next In Their Darkened Shrines or Annihilation of the Wicked, this album resonates with me more strongly than recent Nile efforts.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10