Rivers Of Nihil are unlike anybody else. Prog metal mavericks, the band drafted in Cannibal Corpse guitarist Erik Rutan to produce their debut album - 2013's The Conscious Seed Of Light - and have consistently pushed the boundaries of both extremity and progressive metal with each subsequent release.
With a new self-titled album taking them to jazzier shores than ever before - and that's something - Hammer caught up with vocalist Adam Biggs to talk concepts, pony rides and why Rush are overrated.
Every Rivers Of Nihil album is a concept album. Do you have any concept ideas left on the cutting room floor?
“I definitely have some that I chuckle about, because they were concepts that I was really invested in when I was really young, like 18. They were really weird and blasphemous with lots of gross imagery. I don’t think I would relate to them today at all.”
Erik Rutan would have loved that shit!
“One concept I had years ago was this parade of people carrying around Jesus on the cross, but he’s vomiting on everybody. Then they were bottling it up and selling it to each other. I’m sure he would have liked that more than whatever stuff we were writing on The Conscious Seed Of Light. Ha ha ha! I remember him joking about how not-metal a lot of our lyrics were.”
Your guitarist, Brody Uttley, said Erik “kicked the shit” out of you guys in the studio back then. What happened?
“He has a very old-school mentality when it comes to recording. There’s no hand-holding. We had never been in a situation like that in a recording environment. You’re like, ‘I drove down to Florida thinking I knew how to play this riff, but then we recorded it and it turns out I suck at it!’ I remember not sleeping at all that month.”
So he taught you how to play your own riffs?!
“Yeah. We were playing really fast and technical stuff at the time. When we’re all in a room jamming it sounds cool, but then you go record it and listen to it, and you’re like, ‘Wow, that sounds like dogshit!’”
You signed to Metal Blade, launchpad for legends such as Cannibal Corpse and Slayer, when you were in your early 20s. How big was your head?
“I definitely went crazy there for a while! Ha ha ha! I thought it was all going to be limousines and pony rides from then on. But I was very wrong. I was definitely like, ‘We did it, boys’, but getting signed is when the real game starts!”
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen in a Rivers Of Nihil pit?
“There was a thing that was happening for a little while that was interesting. We would play the song Where Owls Know My Name, which has this jam at the end of it. People were, like, getting in a meditative pose in the pit. There’d basically be a full meditation circle in the pit, full ‘namaste’. It happened a few shows in a row, then it just stopped.”
You once told Revolver you had a “rocky relationship” with Rush, because their fans make you feel like you’re not devoted enough. Why?
“I like Rush. I think [1981’s] Moving Pictures is pretty close to a 10 out of 10 as far as albums go. But, beyond Moving Pictures, I’m just not really that into it.”
You do realise that that’s heresy in prog metal circles?
“There are so many ‘essential’ bands that people like, but that I couldn’t give a shit about. People quiz me about Metallica and I’m like, ‘I don’t know anything about Metallica.’ I’ve gotten more into Metallica now, but I’ve spent most of my life knowing next to nothing about that band.”
Why didn’t they do it for you?
“When I was growing up, the metal that graced my ears was Korn and Slipknot and stuff like that, which was really showy. Metallica, they felt boilerplate to me. I think they’re cooler now. The turning point was within the last two or three years. The fourth of July came along and I was like, ‘I’ll listen to The Black Album really loud all day today!’ And I like the story of Metallica.”
The kids next door becoming heavy metal millionaires?
“Yeah!”
And they released their first song through Metal Blade! That’s what you thought you were signing up for, right?
“Exactly! Or I thought at least I was going to see the inside of a tour bus soon. But we were still in a stinky van for a couple years after that. Ha ha!”
Rivers Of Nihil's self-titled album is out May 30 via Metal Blade. The band tour North America from May 22 and play Rockstadt and Bloodstock Festivals in August. For the full list of dates, visit the band's official website.
