Also, one of the tracks after "Terrestria III" is literally called "Death Is Real." Lately, I've decided to check out "what's hot", what's the top 50 music these days. The same can be said of the guitars, which play really uninteresting and unmemorable 'extreme' riffs, tedious mid-paced chugging (reaching a high point on the boredom scale during 'Subtle Change') or run of the mill tech death leads. You could say that Cryptopsy is a licensed surgeon gone serial killer. The third single was the title track which was track nine (a good sign). Many might find the sax parts on this record cliché and needless; in my opinion, it's pretty difficult to make an instrument like the sax fit into a metal record, but the band executed the potential of the sax in a way that absolutely fits the tech death parts and made it work beautifully. There are palpable influences of Meshuggah and even a more technical Gojira when it gets at it's most proggy (As well as some of the vocal stylings). A lot of these sections are cool on their own, but they are baffling in the context of the album. These guitars create both dizzying rhythms and entrancing rhythms. In contrast, "Where Owls Know My Name" is a coldly calculated product. Despite that, Where Owls Know My Name is a real winner in my mind. One of the things I like most about this song is it shows just how they dialed back the technicality a bit so that they could truly shine in the writing department, as well as adding breaks to really make the heaviest parts stand out. Follow Rivers Of Nihil here! Prior to its release, Where Owls Know My Name had started to receive very positive buzz, mainly due to the first track they released “The Silent Life.” I must admit I got caught up in the hype myself, with the perfect blend of brutality, melody, and sax. Pop music. This is what I wish the natural progression was from Meshuggah. Rutan, revered for his work as both a musician ( Hate Eternal, Morbid Angel) and producer ( Cannibal Corpse, Goatwhore ), insisted on recording The Conscious … Find Rivers of Nihil discography, albums and singles on AllMusic I bet you’ll have a hard time choosing your favorite/s, but if you were to choose a few, mine would be the prelude Cancer / Moonspeak, A Silent Life, Old Nothing, Hollow, Death Is Real, and Capricorn / Agoratopia. Finally, the last track "Capricorn/Agoratopia" cleverly brings the album full circle by using the intro track and giving it more fleshed-out instrumental accompaniment to drive the final mini-epic home. Up above I mentioned that at first the lack of riffs bothered me, but once I listened to the guitars and what they were doing I was floored. Jake Dieffenbach (vocals), Brody Uttley (guitar), Adam Biggs (bass), Jon Kunz (guitar, 2009-14), Ron Nelson (drums, 2009-14), Jonathan Topore (guitar, 2014-present), Alan Balamut (drums, 2014-16), Dylan Potts (drums, 2016-17), Jared Klein (drums, 2017-present) The song manages to keep my attention every time I listen to it. Overall this is easily the the 2nd best "death metal" release of 2018. The vocalist's harsh styles alternate between serviceable rasps and a somewhat barking growl; he's probably the standout performer simply because it's hard to make vocals sound mechanical and shallow like every other performance here. I am not convinced that this is music performed by human beings, sans the vocalist (which is weak and forgettable at best). I figured that even though her music is predictable and kind of shallow, it sounds pleasing to the ear and catchy, and the production is simply flawless, for the goals it means to achieve. The song has blistering fast palm muted tremolo picking for the main riff and is absolutely stacked with double bass pounding. The sound is compressed to shit, the bass drum is as clicky as a metronome and the whole thing comes off as terribly overproduced. None of the songs are outright bad, but I find that songs such as “Old Nothing” and “Death is Real” just don’t have the same vitamins and minerals as the stand-outs here like “A Home” and “Hollow.” Again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with these songs, and it’s not like they’re stylistically different to anything else presented here, but I don’t find them to be anywhere near as interesting. Listen to it on "Silent Life" and "Subtle Change". Obviously the lyrics bring out regret, loss, aging and death. The first two were "A Silent Life" and "A Home," the first two tracks on the album (a bad sign, if you're me). Mastering complete. While output of previous generations of run-of-the-mill “techdeath” bands such as Rings of Saturn could be described as “technically competent”, this cannot be. The album ends with, in my opinion, the two best tracks of the whole record, the self titled song, and Capricorn / Agoratopia. They're whiny, nasally and trying way too hard. Other ideas they throw in are the gratuitous and aimless saxophone a few minutes into 'Home' or the bland attempts at electronica they'll dive into in an equally pointless fashion. You’re listening to statistical charts of the record label executive. Old Nothing is a very interesting song that truly showcases how just god damn good this album shines in sections. I find "Where Owls Know My Name" to be on the same page. Avoid. 2018 has arrived and with it comes Rivers of Nihil’s third album “Where Owls Know My Name”. The singles started to drop, and I listened. placeholder. "I feel sickened, entropic vision" is growled with such vitriol with pummeling riffs under it and believe it or not, there is a black metal section on this song too, nearly a whole minute of pure kvlt. These parts do NOT contrast with the depressive vibe! I fucking love Surrounded by Silence by Design the Skyline. However this is far from a carbon copy of those records. On the contrary, they enhance it. There is no vitality in this album because it's all about death. So you have some cool padding and not so cool padding. Album artwork was created by Dan Seagrave, who would handle the artwork on the band's other two albums as well. Cool story, right? Rivers of Nihil is an American technical death metal band hailing from Reading, Pennsylvania. The 25 best metal albums of 2010 - 2019 really enjoying this record for sake. Noticed that the band has their priorities all wrong Name '' is literally called `` death real! 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