Surprinsingly, this is our first review on a Rivers of Nihil album. I am not really sure if surprisingly is a good term to express the relation with the band. All controvertial bands have a (very) controvertial relation with the press and, more importantly, with the fans. The few I know about the band is that they are a love or hate kind of band. If one asks me about Metal bands of the 1980’s or, a little less, of the 1990’s I will give a full list of all bands that are really controvertial and why. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about young bloods as Rivers of Nihil. Young to me because the band was formed in 2009, so, 16 years of career.
Ok, then, I’ll try to do my best here. There is one thing I love to do here is to review a band I do not know very well, or a controvertial band, to exercise my powers of impartiality. It means I have to get out of myself, forget all my likes and dislikes and write an unbiased review of the album. Not an easy task, if you know what I mean.
Listening to “Rivers of Nihil” it was very easy to get to know why the band is considered controvertial to say the least. It is an out of the box album in all the senses I could possible think about and wonder. To some extent, I love reviewing albums like this one, therefore, I have to be really honest with you guys. One thing is that there are tracks here I could not stand them. They are so unberable that I had to make a huge effort to go back and listen to them again just to say their names. They are “Water & Time,“ and “House of Light.” The problem with them is that they are away out of the box. I’ll elaborate. I find it nice and even healthy when bands blend non-metal features to their music. In my opinion, this continous blend is what made Metal music lasts so long as it has done. I know we are steping on thin ice here. However, there is a limit to this blend and the limit is Metal music itself. When the blend gets so strong that Metal music features fade away it is the time to stop. That’s exactly what happened to those tracks. I cannot stand saxophones on Metal music. Way out of line to me. If you do, please, forgive me. “Water & Time“ sounds as an angry Sade!
Of course, there are good tracks in the album. The slow cadenced and moody tittle track and grand finale “Rivers of Nihil” works fine to me. I am stepping on firm ground with it. The mix with Prog Rock here and its elements enriche the dough without losing the required Metal elements. After all, we are talking about a Metal band. “Dustman,” for instance, is the kind of Deathcore that I appreciate.
Don’t get me wrong, I embrace the idea of making Metal music more diverse with elements from other genres, but Metal elements have to overcome those other elements, if they don’t it’s not Metal, it’s something else. I think I made my point clear here.
Rivers of Nihil “S/T” will be released on May 30th via Metal Blade Records.
Track Listing:
01. The Sub-Orbital Blues
02. Dustman
03. Criminals
04. Despair Church
05. Water & Time
06. House of Light
07. Evidence
08. American Death
09. The Logical End
10. Rivers of Nihil
Watch “American Death” official music video here:
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!