“Do the work — I know it hurts when you have to.”
If I told you there was a band out there that was the product of placing Between The Buried And Me, Fallujah, Archspire, King Crimson and Pink Floyd into a bubbling cauldron, you’d probably accuse me of chatting absolute shit, and rightly so. Such styles are as equally groundbreaking as they are varied, yet such a band truly does exist.
Pennsylvanian technical death-metal outfit, Rivers Of Nihil, manage to miraculously fuse their multitudinous influences into a sound that is something seriously special. Whilst their 2018 outing Where Owls Know My Name initially attracted me with its dark, autumnal soundscapes, Rivers Of Nihil’s latest effort The Work has me wanting to open up a mortgage with it, settle down, have a couple of kids… Alright, perhaps I won’t be shagging any records, but this album is stupidly seductive nonetheless.
Clocking in at sixty-four minutes, The Work has been intentionally engineered to be experienced in a single sitting despite its density. Commencing with “The Tower (Theme from “The Work”)”, Rivers Of Nihil establish the core theme for the record — that we are all slaves to struggle, that forward momentum is the product of harsh, unrelenting physical, mental and spiritual grinding. This theme acts as an overture, recurring in track eight, “Tower 2”, and in melodies and lyrics all throughout the record.
Second song “Dreaming Black Clockwork” echoes the recently released “Neptune Raining Diamonds” by Deafheaven, in that its three-worded title encapsulates the song’s sound absolutely flawlessly, whereas third track “Wait” offers up one of Rivers’ greatest forays yet into the realms beyond death-metal. I cannot say enough good about “Wait” — it is lusciously layered, bathed in nostalgic warmth, and addictively emotive. Replete with background synths that remind me of one of my favourite video games, EarthBound, and a jaw-dropping Pink Floyd-esque guitar solo, “Wait” stands as a true highlight on The Work for me.
The Work includes killer single “Clean”, which utilises Behemoth-like guitar passages to illustrate a ghostly, decrepit sweatshop in the depths of a dingy subterranean labyrinth. Vocalist Jake Dieffenbach delivers standout punishing lyrics with perfection on this one — “I want your money, your time / I want your patience, your pride / I’m a restless innovator / And I’m working overtime.”
Second single “Focus”, meanwhile, imbues a striking balance of Slipknot and Polaris vibes in its instrumentation and layered vocals respectively. In “Focus”, bassist and lyricist Adam Biggs reflects on his lifelong relationship with drugs, having been treated for ADD as a child. Lyrics such as “I know the work you do so well / Yeah, I can tell you’re keeping me down here with you / In this chemical well” bear apparent parallels with a narrative on the negative effect drugs can have. Not only this, Biggs’ lyrics further build upon the dark, visceral visualisation that makes The Work so much more than a mere sonic indulgence.
Where The Work shines brightest in my opinion is in its penultimate track, “Maybe One Day”, which is an utterly sublime hybridisation of “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd and “Snuff” by Slipknot. I understand the gravitas of such a comment, but I truly do mean it. From its church organ and arpeggiated acoustic guitars to its sheer level of grandeur as gorgeous clean vocals and arena-filling drums enter the fold, “Maybe One Day” held me captive effortlessly. This track can easily transcend generations, appealing as much to modern death-metal devotees as it would to lovers of 70s prog-rock. “Maybe One Day” is honestly one of my most beloved pieces of music released in 2021, it’s that good.
Whilst The Work contains perhaps too much content to explore in a brief review, it would be entirely unforgivable to conclude without mentioning the fourth chapter in Rivers’ “Terrestria” series: track eleven, “Terrestria IV: Work”. Shifting from an apprehensive atmosphere in the beginning with a horror-influenced orchestra, Rivers transition seamlessly into rich, clean guitars, marching drums and the beloved modern metal trope — the saxophone. Armed with their lethal, Drop F#-tuned Kiesel guitars, virtuosic duo Brody Uttley and Jon Torope add a hyper-aggressive seven-string dimension to “Terrestria IV: Work”, a guitar performance that is unreservedly disgusting in the greatest possible manner. What a fucking mental closer.
In conclusion, Rivers Of Nihil have unquestionably floored me with The Work. You may notice this review is absent of any major criticism, and to be completely transparent, I don’t really have anything definitively negative to state here. This densely-packed album lacks the issues I personally have with bands that barely scrape an LP with the same amount of tracks, yet barely half the run-time. The mix, crafted by Carson Slovak and Grant McFarland, is faultlessly good, and the songwriting outshines a lot of what I’ve heard in 2021 — most records fail to pictorialize to the same extent that The Work does.
If I was pushed to explain why I’m not giving this album a solid 10/10 score, it’d be because a few tracks, such as “The Void From Which No Sound Escapes”, “MORE?” and “Episode”, lack the signature staying power that pretty much every other track on The Work does. With that being said, everything on The Work, quite simply, works. This album is one of the greatest I’ve heard all year, and maybe even beyond that. Give The Work a spin and try your best not to fall in love with it. I dare you.
The Work by Rivers Of Nihil is available now via Metal Blade Records, and can purchase or stream the record here. For more on Rivers Of Nihil, death-metal and more, keep it locked on Boolin Tunes.
9.5/10