There's always a risk of getting disappointed when expectations are too high and this is exactly how I feel about Ithyphallic. I knew it would take some extraordinary to outdo Annihilation of the Wicked and I tried hard not to get my hopes up too high. Despite of this it almost immediately becomes apparent that Ithyphallic is not as nearly as vigorous as Annihilation of the Wicked. Everything is intact and Nile does sound like Nile. The music is brutal death metal as expected and all the Egyptian-styled samples are also here. There are no drastic alterations despite of what to some extent appears to be a tiny difference in approach, but somehow the result is less appealing.

It often feels like the band was a little too eager to get Ithyphallic finished and shipped off to Nuclear Blast. Some of the songs tend to sound a bit recycled and others like "Even the Gods Must Die" seem to have a lot of unnecessary filler. Of course it's not all dreadful and Nile does show their magnitude in songs like "As He Creates, So He Destroys", "Papyrus Containing the Spell to Preserve Its Possessor against Attacks From He Who is in the Water" and "The Essential Salts", but overall the songs are far less impressive than on Annihilation of the Wicked or In Their Darkened Shrines. Ithyphallic is not a weak effort and it do start to grow a little after a while, but after Nile standards it's just not that convincing a effort.