# Karl Sanders

Karl Sanders (born June 5, 1963) is an American vocalist and guitarist, most widely known as the founding member of the American technical death metal band Nile.

## Early life

Sanders started playing guitar when he was nine years old. Before creating Nile, Sanders was in a thrash metal band during the late 1980s called Morriah and played local shows with the young Morbid Angel and other US death metal bands. He said, "The 80s were a lot of fun. It was a time where everybody had disposable income so everybody was always going out. There were half a dozen places to play in my home town. You could have quite the life playing four nights a week, even as a cover band, but after a while we wanted to write our own songs."

## Other projects

Sanders began his own solo side project in 2004. Much of the music that he plays includes similar elements of his band Nile, however presented in an ambient/Egyptian folk format, rather than death metal. Sanders explained that "he got sick of hearing big loud death metal everyday after touring", and started writing quieter music to relax, and recorded them.
His first solo full-length album, Saurian Meditation, was released in October 2004 under the Relapse record label. A second solo album, Saurian Exorcisms, was released in April 2009. In May 2022, he announced his third solo album, Saurian Apocalypse, would be released on July 22.

## Guest appearances

Sanders guested on Behemoth's 2004 CD release, Demigod, playing a guitar solo on the track "XUL". He also performed a guitar solo at the end of the track "God of Our Own Divinity" by Morbid Angel, on their 2003 album Heretic, as well as a solo on the song "The Final War (Battle of Actium)" on Ex Deo's 2009 album Romulus. Sanders also played on Grave's 2010 album Burial Ground on the tracks "Bloodtrail" and "Naafa". Sanders traveled to Dubai to collaborate on guest vocals for Nervecell's song "Shunq (To the Despaired... King of Darkness)" on their 2011 album Psychogenocide. On Tourniquet's 2012 album Antiseptic Bloodbath, Sanders contributed a guitar solo to the track "Chamunda Temple Stampede". Sanders was also featured in episode one of Rusty Cooley's and Zachary Adkins' podcast "Guitar Autopsy" available on YouTube. In 2017 Sanders traveled to Egypt to collaborate with Nader Sadek, Derek Roddy, and Mahmud Gecekusu on The Serapeum EP In 2018 Sanders did a guest solo on the song "Sacred War of Lawlessness" for Polish Blackened Death Metal Band Veld Sanders provided lead guitars for THŪN's self-titled EP in 2021.

## Artistry

Sanders commented on his creative process and mindset, "Basically, if you’re a guitar player, there’s riffs that are going to come out. It just happens. It’s part of it. [...] It’s [just] not necessarily an endless well, and not every riff that we come up with manages to make its way into a song. That is where it comes from; we love to play music, so we’re always riffing. But, as soon as you try to dictate to the muse, it goes away. You can’t force yourself to be creative. You can be disciplined and work on your craft every day. [...] Not always is gold just gonna fall out of the sky, like when you hear a Nile record. [...] No, those songs took years to put together. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into taking the inspiration that we had and crafting it into something."

## Personal life

He has a son named Kael who appeared as a guest vocalist on Nile's 2019 album Vile Nilotic Rites.
Karl Sanders is an avid pickleball player.
On the origin of civilization, Sanders surmised, "I think we’re aliens. I think we’re not necessarily native to this planet. I think we came here from somewhere else, destroyed ourselves a couple of times, and what’s left after all that period of chaos, that’s what we have left, and that’s why no one knows where the fuck we came from. The early part of human history and civilisation is riddled with unknowns. Where did we come from? Where did these ideas come from? How do the Egyptians have such an advanced civilisation? Well, I think it came from before and just no one remembers."

## Discography

| Release date | Album details | Label | Format |
| October 26, 2004 | Saurian Meditation | Relapse Records | CD |
| April 14, 2009 | Saurian Exorcisms | The End Records | CD |
| July 22, 2022 | Saurian Apocalypse | Napalm Records | CD, vinyl, digital download, cassette |