Genre : Progressive metal, Technical death metal
Released : September 24th, 2021
Label : Metal Blade Records
FFO : Between the Buried and Me, Fallujah, Obscura, Black Crown Initiate
Between one thing and the other outside of "blog hours", it's only very recently that I've been able to listen to the newest Rivers of Nihil despite being eager to listen to their next musical step after having immediately fallen in love with 2018's "Where Owls Know My Name", which became instantly regarded as an essential album of the genre and beloved by both fans and critics, taking the metal scene by storm at the time.
Well, "The Work" takes a steep turn in a different, new direction compared to what the band had unleashed on "Where Owls Know My Name" and the main thing that has been retained here is Rivers of Nihil's will to keep experimenting with progressive metal and technical death metal.
Where Between the Buried and Me experiments with a wide array of musical genres you would never dream of finding in metal, Rivers of Nihil focus on creating outlandish and surprising sound design you would not expect from a tech death band, and these range from unusual instruments, to synth modulation and even field recordings that have been manipulated time and time again.
However that is not to say there isn't any genre-crossing in this album, if anything, this is the band's most musically diverse record in that regard.
Indeed, you can find theatrical prog as well as bleak and harsh industrial influences dancing about the core foundation of the band's signature style of relentless, double kick-heavy technical death metal.
One thing that I can't quite get behind on this album though, is the new approach to dual clean vocals.
The cleans on WOKMN felt purposeful and emotionally charged whereas here they fall a bit flat, feel uncertain and at times even out of place in the grand scheme of the album, even when taking its narrative into account.
At least that is the impression I get from them.
Nonetheless, with "The Work", the band are able to once again convey a well thought-out concept story that feels cohesive from start to finish despite having a varied spectrum of styles and emotions.
In that sense, it reminds me both of BTBAM's "Colors II" and Pink Floyd's "The Wall" due to its strong sense of dramatical story-telling and its commitment to the narrative concept.
Even though there's elements of "The Work" that I am not really fond of, it is undeniably creative and captivating while also managing to contribute to keeping technical death metal relevant and exciting.
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