rivers of nihil - hierarchy

boy, this one takes me right back to those myspace days in the mid to late 00's. what a throwback.

musically not as diverse as nowadays' version of ron, the listener gets a sharp attack of what deathcore was like in 2009. metal blade. 2024.

rivers of nihil - the work

man, these dudes made some development in sound. if it's for the better or the worse is your decision. as for me, i am in team "the work" for sure! love the presentation by metal blade records as well. this is the emp mailorder eclusive variant #195 out of 200 copies. 2021.

rivers of nihil - monarchy

i bought the latest rivers of nihil record just a few month ago. "where owls know my name" must have been quite a commercial success. the limited vinyl versions were gone pretty fast and are already subject to insane second-hand prices. if discogs is to be believed a copy of the version i have already sold for ninety five bucks. jesus, crazy that someone gives that much cash for a record shortly after release date. it seems that in the wake of these events, metal blade decided to give the band's second full length "monarchy"the vinyl treatment to cash in.

this strategy worked with me again. when pre-orders went up at emp mailorder, i did not need much time for consideration and bought a copy of the most limited european colour-way right away. musically "monarchy" is less experimental than "where owls know my name" and thus less unique. but when it comes to quality and coherent atmosphere, "monarchy" takes the cake. all in all rivers of nihil's second full length will get more spins on my turntable than its successor. really good prog/tech death metal album all around.

the presentation by the label is very neat. the album comes in a gatefold sleeve graced with artwork of the infamous dan seagrave. i love the art he contributed to albums of bands like the black dahlia murder, entombed or xibalba and this one looks ominous and epic in a way, only seagrave can pull it off. the vinyl colour is a beauty as well. bone/bronze merge makes me think of a good latte macchiato. this version is limited to 100 hand-numbered copies. funnily i got #80 again. metal blade records. 2015/2018.

rivers of nihil - where owls know my name

rivers of nihil were quite unknown to me when i glimpsed the cover art for their new record "where owls know my name" over at emp mailorder. the band was founded in 2009 and two e.p.'s later they were signed to metal blade records in 2012. in the course of the coming three years rivers of nihil released two full lengths, both flew under my radar. nevertheless the artwork for their third record was intriguing and the term technical death metal made my heart beat faster.

i checked out one or two songs. my initial thought was: "not bad but do i really need that record?" well, the music was cool enough to convince me of buying the lp. i have listened to "where owls know my name" a few times and am still not sure what to think of it. on the one hand this album is a pandemonium of ideas and progression. a multi-layered piece that bursts with creativity. but on the other hand i feel it is sometimes too much of a good thing.

they seem to get lost in their own sound cosmos and overlook the easy, powerful riff that gives way to all the progressivity. maybe it will grow on me but when i imagine standing in front of my shelf in the need for a modern melodic tech death record, i think i rather pick a fallujah album. still, for fans of the genre this is a no-brainer. the presentation is well done by metal blade. gatefold sleeve with slick artwork and very nice mint and olive green merge with black splatter vinyl. limited and hand-numbered out of 100 copies. metal blade records. 2018.