Egyptian Cock Rock

"They can read something else about the stuff I'm talking about," he says. "Don't just leave it where I've taken it for death-metal lyrics. There's a whole big world of knowledge and ancient history that goes into Nile lyrics. Really, we're just kind of pointing the way back to all of that. We can't possibly encapsulate all the incredible stuff that was ancient Egypt within the context of Nile. We're just doing this little small take on it in comparison to what there really is out there."

Sanders has even received an invitation to speak on the subject at a university in England; he regrets that it didn't fit into the band's tour schedule. So what about a future career as a lecturer?

"I was abysmal in my public speaking classes in college," Sanders laughs. "So going on the college lecture circuit... I don't know about that. It's one thing to stand in front of a thousand people with an electric guitar and the heaviest conceivable band backing you up. That's totally different than trying to give an academic lecture and have them focus on every dotted i and crossed t. Now that's a scary gig. I'm not scared of a thousand metalheads waiting to rip me apart. I'm terrified of college kids on the lecture circuit! But life has always got to have new challenges."

One challenge that still taunts Sanders is his desire to visit Egypt for real.

"I want to go pretty darned bad," he says. "I keep bugging the record company to send us there. If you've ever tried to buy a plane ticket from anywhere in America to Egypt, it's quite expensive. The last time I checked, it was a $2,600 ticket."

And how does Sanders think Nile would be received in the Middle East?

"In this political climate? Pretty fucking iffy. I get letters from fans in Israel — in Palestine. The young teenaged metalhead couldn't give a fuck about the mess that his grandparents made. They want to live their own lives, listen to their music, and do their own thing."

Even from his comfy academic and geographic distance, with all his talk of Egyptian spirits and curses, does Sanders ever worry deep down about unleashing negative spiritual forces?

"I don't believe in any sort of curses following us around," he says. "We've been messing around in the lyrical tombs for quite a while now. We're 14 years into this band, and I haven't seen any evidence of mummies' curses coming to haunt us yet. In fact, we're doing better than we ever have. The new record has shipped five times what the last one did. So we're doing fine!"