After the departure of vocalist Jake Dieffenbach and guitarist Jon Topore in 2022, Rivers of Nihil revamped their lineup. Bassist Adam Biggs took on the lead vocal position, while Black Crown Initiate’s Andy Thomas was brought in to handle guitar and backing vocals alongside fellow guitarist Brody Uttley and drummer/backing vocalist Jared Klein. The fifth Rivers album is a reflection of the progressive death-metal squad’s new paradigm. “I think the main difference is that I was involved,” Thomas tells Apple Music. “On the last few albums, it’s been largely Brody putting music together and Biggs writing lyrics and figuring out how it all works and doling that out to everybody live. On this album, I definitely contributed riffs and song ideas and solos and obviously a lot of vocals. But it’s still very much a Rivers album.” As it turns out, the self-titled album is a new beginning in more ways than one. “Their first four albums represented a four-season cycle, so I think they planned to make this one self-titled before I was even in the band,” Thomas explains. “But with all the lineup upheaval, I think it ended up being very appropriate. I think it was reinforced by everything that went down.” Below, Thomas discusses each track. “The Sub-Orbital Blues” “This originally came out a couple of years ago. It’s not only the first thing I played on with Rivers; it was the first riff that I brought to the band. And it was the first song that we started working on for the album. It was the first time that I had really experimented with vocals with these guys as well. Throughout the song, Jared and I harmonize. I’m really proud of that one because it was the first that the world heard of us together.” “Dustman” “Usually on a Rivers album, Brody will write at least one fast banger, and that's what ‘Dustman’ is. It’s entirely written musically by Brody, and we ended up really dressing it up vocally. There’s definitely a good amount of layered vocals going on. The song is based around the life of a homeless person, so the first vocal harmony on the word ‘dust’ we wanted to sound like a train horn. It has a really catchy chorus, but it’s one of those things on the album that stresses me out having to deliver live. Playing that and singing it together is going to be very difficult.” “Criminals” “I was watching this documentary called Vatican Girl. It’s about a young lady who got kidnapped in Rome in the ’80s, and it was never solved. It was really sad, and I just picked up a guitar and wrote what ended up being the chorus to this song. It was originally released [in 2024], but the album version has cool banjo playing from our merch guy and dear friend Stephan Lopez that turned out really cool. We also took an idea from Opeth on this one: At the end of the song, we detuned the banjo as Stephan was playing, and my dad was actually one of the guys who did that.” “Despair Church” “This is another song that started with a riff that I wrote. I remember sending a video of it to Biggs, and I never got a response, so I figured he didn’t like it. Then we went to Australia to play some shows, and the other three guys in the band started to work out the arrangement for the song without me! But the chorus is one of my favorites on the album for sure. Our sax player, Patty [Corona], really blew us away with the sax part at the end of the interlude. I think it’s my favorite sax part on the album.” “Water & Time” “This is another one that Brody ended up writing all the music for. There’s quite a few of those on here. The way Brody works is he’ll just write a whole song in two hours and then it’s done. It’s basically a two-chord song. I thought it needed more chords, but I was wrong about that. It’s got great sax playing from Patty, based off a lot of the musical themes that are already there. I played the guitar solo on this one, and I’m very proud of it. It turned out very nice and melodic.” “House of Light” “I love this song—it might be my favorite on the album. Brody and I wrote this one together. It originally started as complementary parts to ‘The Sub-Orbital Blues.’ He wrote the verse riff and the middle section where it modulates to a different key. Then I took that rhythmic motif and the melodic portion of the bridge section to come up with the solo section where, for the first time, Brody and I trade off solos.” “Evidence” “This is another short banger that Brody wrote. We had some friends in the studio who did the gang vocals on the chorus: Mike Manley, Brian Miller, Nick Shaw, and Stephan Lopez. I’m a big fan of this one, too. The riffs are very fun to play. I did the melodic guitar harmony part, which was definitely influenced by James Hetfield, my favorite guitar player. Brody did the crazy solo after that, which was directly influenced by Morbid Angel.” “American Death” “Brody wrote this one very quickly. I want to say it was in an afternoon, but I could be exaggerating. I would say it’s an homage to Decapitated’s Organic Hallucinosis era, which is an album we all love very much. The riffs are very syncopated machine gun-type things, which we like to do. The chorus reminds me of Living Colour in a weird way, like an ’80s rock chorus or something. And there’s a Hillary Clinton sample at the beginning. We tried to get her to do a guest spot, but she declined.” “The Logical End” “This is another beautiful one that Brody wrote. From what I understand, the lyrics are about Biggs becoming a father and the inevitability of having to say goodbye to everyone and everything you love, which is a nerve-wracking part of this human experience that we all share. The middle section reminds me of something that would’ve been on [Rivers of Nihil’s 2018 album] Where Owls Know My Name. And the chorus reminds me of Cloudkicker, which is a project that Brody and I used to listen a lot to back in the day. It’s a very emotional song.” “Rivers of Nihil” “I think maybe the point of the album is a caution against finding yourself, for lack of a better term, in the rivers of nihil—allowing yourself to sink into nihilism, hopelessness, and despair. I think the album itself is an encouragement to not do that, and I think that’s the nature of the lyrics of the last song too. The intro has got me, Jared, and Biggs singing, and you can pick us all out individually, which I think is pretty cool. The melodies are very catchy, the vocals are cool, and the lyrics are great.”