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
Self-titled albums several releases into a band’s career are as often an indicator of a fresh start or radical reinvention as they are a harbinger of a group running low on creativity. In the case of Rivers Of Nihil, it’s not really any of these things; it’s a good album, but it’s unlikely to become as memorable an entry into their discography as the band may have hoped for when lending it their name.
One possible reason for the naming decision could be to reflect the significant line-up changes that have occurred since previous release The Work; both guitarist Jonathan Topore and founding vocalist Jade Dieffenbach departed in 2022, with ex-Black Crown Initiate guitarist Andy Thomas replacing the former and bassist Adam Biggs taking over lead vocal duties in place of the latter. Coming off the back of the acclaimed 2018 release Where Owls Know My Name, The Work was an ambitious and somewhat experimental release that nevertheless failed to reach the heights of its predecessor; Rivers Of Nihil continues on with some aspects of that release, but also ventures back further in their discography at the same time.
One way in which Rivers Of Nihil builds from The Work is on the clean vocal front; the band featured clean singing before their last album, but it became a bit more of a central feature, particularly with the inclusion of softer songs such as “Wait” and “Maybe One Day”. There’s nothing similar here, and yet the singing (which I believe is performed at least in part by Thomas here) is more consistent in its presence, appearing on the large majority of tracks in one form or another. That said, while the singing is often tasked with delivering the chorus of songs, Rivers Of Nihil do largely shy away from cheesier sung choruses like in “Focus” on the last album (the one exception to this, “American Death”, is for my money easily the weakest track on the record).
However, the experiments with overall softer songs such as those mentioned in the last paragraph, as well as the more expansive and progressive songs that had appeared on both of the last two releases, are mostly absent this time around (although saxophone continues to pop up on occasions, performed this time around by Patric Corona), as the band strive towards more direct songwriting. The extremity and technicality of the likes of “Dustman” and “Evidence” reach back somewhat towards Monarchy, and that intensity is welcome considering the lack of similar material on The Work, particularly when it’s as emphatic as it is in “Evidence”.
Those who checked out the at-the-time standalone singles following Thomas’ arrival will recognize both “The Sub-Orbital Blues” and “Criminals” (“Hellbirds” was not included); the former opens in a bit of an unassuming manner, but I enjoy how it subsequently balances heaviness and atmosphere, particularly during the saxophone-accompanied bridge. The latter is one of the more intense features here, but it has quite passionate clean vocals in its chorus; I do enjoy the song, but comparing it to a similar track from Where Owls… such as “Hollow”, I feels it falls a bit short in terms of memorability. That’s something I’d be inclined to say about the album as a whole, as I find myself longing for some real standout songs or peak moments across its runtime.
That said, there’s some solid cuts in the tracklist, perhaps the most memorable of which being “House Of Light”. It has a slight resemblance to the title track from Where Owls… in some of its lighter tonality and saxophone use, and having such a level of pathos in the chorus is rather resonant, particularly when contrasted with the heaviness of the verses. “The Logical End” is another more memorable song here, from its dreamy cleaner intro and bright-sounding guitar solo to the thickness of its more extreme metal passages.
I would say that, overall, I find Rivers Of Nihil to be a more consistent listening experience than The Work, but one that perhaps lacks the peaks from that record; on top of that, both of them fall quite short of Where Owls Know My Name. There’s some good synergy in this revamped Rivers Of Nihil line-up, and Biggs has taken over lead vocal duties very effectively, but I suspect they’re yet to produce their best work.
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Written on 29.05.2025 by
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