Review Summary: Rivers of Nihil get into rhythm and then stop.
Four years ago, I openly criticised Rivers Of Nihil’s
The Work for being over-indulgent, unpolished and crippled by a lack of song-writing finesse. It didn’t help that
The Work was hampered by a mixing that didn’t stand up to the ambitious and often bombastic ideas that unfortunately didn’t meet the expectations set in the debut. Still, there was some merit to what the guys from Rivers of Nihil were trying to do, they just needed to flesh out those ideas properly. Rivers Of Nihil may have set the world on fire with their attention-getting debut (putting aside the two underwhelming records before it),
Where the Owls Know My Name but they’ve been fighting upstream to capitalise on that lightning in a bottle formula.
Rivers Of Nihil are still ambitious—but by welcoming Black Crown Initiate’s Andy Thomas to the fold (who of which lends his vocals and guitar chops), River Of Nihil’s
self-titled album finally starts to make headway, finally achieving the momentum to which
Where Owls Know My Name indicated. “The Sub-Orbital Blues” isn’t sub-optimal. Not completely, but its build up is completely predictable, quickly running parallel with the vocal melodies—but the chug of the riffs is completely uninspiring, lacking the initial progressive flair of the records before it.
The Work may have been an album full of missteps, but at least it tried. “The Sub-Orbital Blues” could quite possibly be the laziest opener this band will ever produce. That said, it’s among the new record’s better compositions.
“Dustman” and “Criminals” continue to tread a trajectory between “this is some interesting shi
t and why the fu
ck am I so bored?” There are riffs, but they sing in a singular direction, capitulating while death metal growls race over the top. Rivers Of Nihil definitely maintain a sense of
heaviness but at the cost of their more progressive tropes. Climes ebb and fade under the same mediocrity, lacking the foundational experimentation to transcend, grow or build on what came before. Rivers Of Nihil have become more traditional in their song-writing structures, heaping upon a sense of genericism while hiding behind Andy Thomas’ more positive attributions to the music at hand. Rivers Of Nihil finally have a hero they can stand behind and frankly, that icon of progressive metal saves a lot of the ideas here.
It’s not all bad news;
Rivers Of Nihil does possess a few
cool moments. Fleeting transitions a la “Despair Church” and the crooning build of “Water and Time” contrast and draw a listener in. The music becomes instantly more convincing when Rivers Of Nihill are willing to trade ideas back and forth, lean into the dichotomy and allow that [god-forbid] saxophone a light to shine under (“House Of Light”). In fact, the contrasting sections in “Water and Time” are the album’s clearest strongest moments. Add a guitar solo, some Black Crown Initiate-lite melodies and
Rivers Of Nihil has a new path to grow, maybe even excel. It’s a shame the rest of the record doesn’t at all keep pace.
“Evidence” quickly falls into the blase routine mentioned above, but the main detriment here is “American Death”. Bland chugged rhythms dominate here to ill effect. It’s as if
Rivers Of Nihil was never meant to even hint at progressive
or interesting music and as such, the whole benefit could do without this track ever seeing the light of day. “American Death” signals the end of an album showing any promise. Both “The Logical End” (probably illogical if we’re being honest) and the self-titled track are meandering nothings—fleshing out the album’s overall runtime without adding anything of value. It’s unfortunate that Rivers of Nihil haven’t really added to their catalogue in a meaningful way. Sure, there are
some ideas here—but if we are to look past the inclusions of Andy Thomas this new record wouldn’t be worth a second or third look. Perhaps, one day, Rivers of Nihil will actually define themselves as a constant fixture within the progressive metal scene, rather than riding on the curtails that they don’t particularly deserve. I do hope I can eventually leave this pessimistic, negative mindset behind—that Rivers Of Nihil do release an album truly worthy of the hype and quality they only hint at. Until then, I’ll still hold onto hope.
