RIVERS OF NIHIL The Work | Weekly Heavy Metal Album Review

Released by Metal Blade Records on September 24th, 2021

Quick Background

Rivers of Nihil is an American technical death metal / prog metal band from Reading, Pennsylvania. The Conscious Seed of Light was the first studio album released in 2013 via Metal Blade Records. Monarchy followed in 2015 and the excellent Where Owls Know My Name in 2018. It was one of my favorite albums of that year. With it the band introduced blends of jazz, alternative, acoustic, and electronica into their tech death metal foundation.

The Work

From the get go we can conclude that Rivers of Nihil doubled down on their more progressive path with the incorporation of even more genres and experimentations. After a few listens, mixed with their death metal roots, I hear Pink Floyd, Dream Theater, Meshuggah, Industrial and even Shoegaze. In sum the Rivers of Nihil is becoming a peer to bands like Between the Buried and Me.

Honesty as a prog metal fan, The Work impressed me already after the first spins. The band was able to blend heaviness atmospheric sounds and melody while using the sax passages and acoustic elements to continue to expand their sound. The album is long, clocking in at 65 minutes and featuring 11 songs. But as it functions almost as a movie soundtrack with great flow and storyline, it doesn't feel like a long album. The variability and dynamics of the songs also help with the experience.

The album opener is a good summary of what's to come. Slow tempo clean passages in contrast with death metal explosions. The noisy last minute of "Dreaming Black Clockwork" reminds me a lot of Dream Theater's "Misunderstood" if played by Meshuggah...if that makes any sense. Just a fun easter egg, but the fact is that overall this is my favorite song of the album. It's super heavy, features a breakdown and a short atmospheric section in the middle. This dynamic gives the song a very much enjoyable explosion of energy with groove. "Clean" is another song with musical contrasts. It is specially interesting due to the incorporation of a synthesizer solo that is straight from the Pink Floyd's book. Followed by an awesome melodic guitar solo. The drum work here is also pretty cool and full of groove. It is a good way to precede "The Void from Which No Sound Escapes", the emotional aggressiveness of this song with the Sax solo and ups and downs is another Pink Floydian moment.  

The whole album is unique for the band, but I think specially two songs may not go down so well with death metal purists: "Wait" which is a trippy slow paced song with a bluesy rock solo and super melodic singing. "Maybe One Day" is based on acoustic guitar, beautiful melodies and an emotional guitar solo. No death metal here, but fantastic prog rock influences. In contrast to that, "MORE?" is  a straight up death metal song.  "Terrestria IV: Work" closes the album with almost 12 minutes of  epicness, I even think of Deafheaven, it's a great album closer to a great album. Also notice the drumming in this track. 

Overall the musicianship in The Work is top notch, I really liked the guitar work on this album, specially the melodic guitar solos as in "Episode" for example. All rounded by a modern clean production, a beautiful album cover and interesting lyrics. What else could I ask for?

The Picky Guy

I guess it's clear that I really liked this album and I have no complains, a bit too long but I don't see how to cut it down. Maybe "Tower 2" wasn't really needed? But I'm just splitting hairs here.

Wrap Up Opinion 

Rivers of Nihil is becoming one of my favorite modern prog metal bands. Last album was great and The Work  did it again and without repeating themselves. This album is unique and very different from previous album but building on what they have done before while expanding their sound. It's really a prog metal album and not death metal anymore. But the death metal aggressiveness is still very much present. So it still sounds like Rivers of Nihil. I'm giving it 87/100 a great album. It will be high on my 2021 list, no doubts.

SCORE: 87/100

Genre: Progressive Metal

Released by Metal Blade Records on September 24th, 2021

Rating System

99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

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