Karl Sanders

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

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 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 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.

Sanders guested on Behemoth's 2004 CD release, Demigod, playing a guitar solo on the track "XUL".

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.

According to Sanders in the official Nile forum and in an article on MetalSucks, the equipment he uses is:

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.

He has a son named Kael who appeared as a guest vocalist on Nile's 2019 album Vile Nilotic Rites.