Author: Primož Novak
Artist: Rivers of Nihil
Label: Metal Blade Records
Release: year_month
Length: 49:26
Rating: 4.5/5
Imagine our planet going through an apocalypse that turns most of its surface into desert and leaves only a small fraction of humanity alive. Surviving in those conditions would be brutally hard, and on top of that a dictatorial system would take hold, built on faith in the Sun. But the dictatorship quickly spirals out of control and chaos breaks loose. Concepts like this probably crawl all over science fiction, and plenty of music has been written on the theme too. But if we zoom in on death metal, it would probably be pointless to make just one generic death metal album with a bunch of similar-sounding songs and call the story told. A concept like this needs a lot more. It needs brutality, darkness and atmosphere.
With Monarchy, Rivers of Nihil are supposedly continuing the story of their debut The Conscious Seed of Light, which stood for spring, so Monarchy is summer. The band claims they’ll tell this long concept across four albums, one for each season. Looking back at the debut, we have to admit that among technical death metal bands it was nothing special. It seemed like technical death metal had peaked when Beyond Creation from Canada burst onto the scene, while the American bands just wanted to follow a formula they weren’t even able to master, let alone build on. But there are other approaches too.
On their second album, Rivers of Nihil simply widened their approach, which at times felt generic. This time, the word “generic” just doesn’t apply. The songwriting has gone deeper, the songs are more finished and they stand out more. In the meantime, the band swapped out their drummer and a guitarist, and they clearly brought some extra freshness with them. The difference is especially noticeable behind the kit. Monarchy is rhythmically more varied, uncompromisingly brutal and decorated with interesting groovy touches.
The album opens with the minimalist intro Heirless, which could be describing the morbid emptiness of an endless wasteland, but then chaos kicks in with the next track, Perpetual Growth Machine, which still doesn’t show everything the band can do. Still, the band’s progress is already obvious in the first half of the album. Brutal, filthy, technical guitars are backed by a dynamic rhythm section and reasonably intelligible vocals that don’t rely only on low-end growling. To build the atmosphere, the band used morbid keyboards that recall some post-rock bands. Definitely a nice extra, and not exactly an everyday thing in technical death metal. Once we get past the halfway mark, the album’s recipe starts to turn. At first the band shows its aggressive side, full of speed and the occasional rhythm that leans on Meshuggah. Then the title track Monarchy gives the album a real upgrade. After the intro the band serves up complex riffs, followed by a wall of brutality that calms down in a clean, undistorted passage, and the syncopated ending is the cherry on top of the song’s structure.
The self-titled track is not where Rivers of Nihil reach the album’s peak. Not by a long shot. The instrumental Terrestria II: Thrive has a strong post-rock element that carries over to the guitar too, and the atmosphere captures the essence of the album’s dark concept. With the second-to-last track, Circles In The Sky, the band shows they saved the best for last. The brutality, technicality and atmosphere are all still there, but the complexity and chaos ramp up at the same time, which shows mostly in the progressive structure. A section with acoustic guitar that flows into a melodic solo helps with that. The same happens with the closer Suntold, which completes the circle with a calm instrumental ending.
Over 50 minutes, the band shows strong progress compared to the debut. Instrumentally, everything is more polished. The guitarists can write both a brutal and a mellow riff, which gives not only the album but technical death metal itself one more dimension. The soloing isn’t overdone, but there are still quite a few virtuosic solos to hear. The rhythm section is lively, and the drumming is as extreme as the genre demands. Blast beats and fast double-bass work are in no short supply. And even though the sound isn’t the most polished, the bass lines can be heard too, which has always been pretty crucial in technical death metal. What doesn’t impress as much is the vocals, which lean on one tone too much. Now and then they get some help from the bassist, which helps fend off the excessive generic feel.
Monarchy is proof that technical death metal is far from played out. Add a little imagination and suddenly there’s loads of room to maneuver, and Rivers Of Nihil made good use of it. The album is brutal, technical, dark and packed with interesting twists, which gives the band huge potential for the albums to come.
What autumn will bring to this long concept remains a mystery for now.
Line-up
Jake Dieffenbach – vocals
Brody Uttley – lead guitar
Jon Topore- guitar
Adam Biggs – bass/vocals
Alan Balamut – drums
Production
Grant McFarland, Alan Douches (mastering)
Track list
01. Heirless
02. Perpetual Growth Machine
03. Reign Of Dreams
04. Sand Baptism
05. Ancestral, I
06. Dehydrate
07. Monarchy
08. Terrestria II: Thrive
09. Circles In The Sky
10. Suntold
