Reading, Pennsylvania-based progressive death metallers RIVERS OF NIHIL are pleased to release the instrumental edition of their critically lauded Where Owls Know My Name full-length today via Metal Blade Records.
RIVERS OF NIHIL announced themselves as one of the most promising and forward-thinking metal bands in the world with their first two releases, The Conscious Seed of Light (2013) and Monarchy (2015). But in March of 2018, they shattered all expectations with their third full-length, Where Owls Know My Name.
Formed in 2009 by guitarist Brody Uttley, bassist/lyricist Adam Biggs, and vocalist Jake Dieffenbach, RIVERS OF NIHIL quickly made a name for themselves in the death metal scene, attracting the attention of legendary death metal titan Erik Rutan. Rutan, revered for his work as both a musician (Hate Eternal, Morbid Angel) and producer (Cannibal Corpse, Goatwhore), insisted on recording The Conscious Seed Of Light. The results were, unsurprisingly, spectacular, with Heavy Blog Is Heavy going so far as to assert that the debut “rivals even the most legendary work of some of [RIVERS OF NIHIL’s] peers and influences.” They continued along this trajectory with Monarchy, which Metal Injection praised as an “incredibly striking” demonstration of how “RIVERS OF NIHIL have evolved into a monster.”
Where Owls Know My Name represented a massive evolutionary leap for RIVERS OF NIHIL. Whereas …Seed… and Monarchy were thematically centered around spring and summer, respectively, Where Owls Know My Name represented the fall. And although that season is usually associated with death, for RIVERS OF NIHIL, the autumn served as a rebirth. Delivering an album which is often just as punishing as its predecessors while assimilating ingredients from musical genres as varied as electronica, jazz, alternative, folk, and the golden age of Shrapnel Records, the resulting music on Where Owls Know My Name is indescribably progressive, a multifaceted soundscape that goes beyond the wildest dreams of even the group’s most ardent admirers.
Comments guitarist Brody Uttley on the instrumental edition of the record, “Ever since Where Owls Know My Name came out we’ve had people begging for an instrumental version. Well… here it is! Better see you musician dorks doing all kinds of cover videos.”
RIVERS OF NIHIL’s Where Owls Know My Name (Instrumentals) is out today digitally.
Stream/purchase the record at metalblade.com/riversofnihil
A reissued slate of Where Owls Know My Name merchandise is also available at indiemerch.com/riversofnihil.
Its release follows the unveiling of a brand new single and video, “Criminals,” earlier this spring.
Stream that at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBzqrBJp4t4
Where Owls Know My Name (Instrumentals) Track Listing:
Cancer / Moonspeak (Instrumental)
The Silent Life (Instrumental)
A Home (Instrumental)
Old Nothing (Instrumental)
Subtle Change (Including The Forest Of Transition And Dissatisfaction Dance) (Instrumental)
Terrestria III: Wither (Instrumental)
Hol
Where Owls Know My Name (Instrumental)
Capricorn / Agoratopia (Instrumental)
