INTERVIEW: Adam Biggs – Rivers Of Nihil

The renowned sub-genre of death metal is arguably in the midst of its most fruitful and innovative era to date, and this can be largely attributed to the emergence of tech-death, its fervent and often spontaneous younger brother. Philadelphia-based quintet RIVERS OF NIHIL are certainly no strangers to this movement, following a solid 2013 debut, and subsequent full-length attempt Monarchy two years later, which was able to establish itself as one of the most proficient progressive death metal performances of the decade. Fast-forward another three years, and the time has come again for this outfit: the March release of their highly anticipated third LP Where Owls Know My Name is fast approaching, and has been eagerly anticipated by the community. In the midst of the build-up, we elected to catch up with bassist and backing vocalist Adam Biggs to gain some extra insight on the process from the band’s perspective.

So, the pre-release campaign for Where Owls Know My Name is now well underway. You’ve already revealed the artwork, track-list, pre-orders, and singles The Silent Life and A Home. What’s the reaction been like so far, and how does it compare to the build-up for Monarchy’s release?

Adam: So far the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. I try not to troll around too much responses to what we’ve put out, but the hype for this seems to be double what it was for Monarchy at this point. Frankly, I’m a little shocked by it, I had a feeling it would be widely rejected for the progressive elements we incorporated. I guess it goes to show that our fans are ready to hear that sort of thing from us, which is what we were counting on.

Monarchy was a great record, and an equally great success. Being the second attempt, and the successor to a brilliant debut, is there an added sense of pressure this time around?

Adam: I don’t think there was any more pressure than there normally is in this day and age. Music is always a huge gamble now, word of mouth on just one release can make or break your entire career. That being said, I think we made it a point to take the pressure off of ourselves in order to just make music that we like and would want to listen to. Making the album sort of felt like, at points, some friends making a bedroom metal record in their spare time. Anytime someone was wondering we’d veered too far off of our ‘usual’ sound, the next thing I would typically say was “fuck it, it’s cool”. But that isn’t to say that there wasn’t any pressure at all. For me, personally, I had to continually ask my self if I was playing or writing to my potential. I think I eventually did and I can hear that struggle in the performance which I think is a good quality to have. It shouldn’t sound easy, even if it’s not hard to play.

Moving on to the record itself, what was the general vision this time around?

Adam: Bottom line, the idea was to not repeat ourselves. We love Monarchy, and we think we started to really hit the mark on what RIVERS OF NIHIL really is with that record, but we didn’t want to make a sequel. Too many metal bands just keep putting out the same record over and over again, which is fine I guess, but it’s just not what we want for ourselves. We wanted to make this record emote more than our previous records, and to do that I think we had to work a bit outside of our typical framework, and outside the conventions of death metal to achieve what we were picturing. All-in-all I think the plan was just to push ourselves and not get pigeonholed into a specific thing.

I notice that, in places, Where The Owls Know My Name is much more instrumentally varied and expansive than Monarchy. A lot of new elements seem to be at play. Was this deliberate, and something that came about as part of the original vision, or was it more natural, and just something that felt right during the writing/recording?

Adam: Well like I said, the goal was to make the album more emotive, and bringing in those other sonic elements and vocal styles seemed to assist with that goal. I guess it started with the addition of the sax passages. We have a local friend, Zach Strouse, who is just a monster musician handle the sax parts, and he just knocked it out of the park. I think from there we just got more and more adventurous. The boundaries started to expand greatly after that.

Monarchy clocked in at 50 minutes in length, maintained a tangible atmosphere throughout, and generally emitted a conceptual vibe. How does the new record compare in that regard? Are there certain themes at play, or certain ambiances in mind?

Adam: The proverbial brick and mortar of our concept and vision as a band is still very much a part of Where Owls Know My Name. In spite of, and assisted by all the new elements. There’s still a comparable atmosphere and an underlying concept at play, although the latter is intended to feel less like a strict narrative and more like a feeling of vibe that blankets the run-time. The album is intended to give off a feeling of frustration at the helplessness of existence. Whether or not we succeeded in conveying that to our audience remains to be seen though I suppose, but to be honest I’m not sure If i care if people totally get what I’m saying or what the band is doing sonically, I think this is something that just needed to get out of us either way.

In addition to the album, RIVERS OF NIHIL recently announced your support slot for the upcoming DYING FETUS tour in North America. This seems like a perfect opportunity to promote the new record. How much new material will you be rehearsing in preparation for this tour?

Adam: It will be a handful of new songs scattered with the old. I think we made the mistake of rolling out too much new material right off the bat on the Monarchy tour cycle. When fans are hit with too much new material that they aren’t familiar with it tends to suck the air out of the room. In that regard I think we’ll be mixing in just the right amount.

The lineup on this tour is clearly impressive, with big names and great talent from top to bottom. How will this tour compare to others RIVERS OF NIHIL have been on in the past, and how are you feeling about it?

Adam: It’ll be the biggest US run we’ve done in a long time. We did some awesome tours on the Monarchy tour cycle, but they were a little more low-key compared to some of the treks we did on the first record. This tour feels like a return to some of the bigger tours we did on the cycle for The Conscious Seed Of Light. We’re all very excited about it and are anxious to play in from of DYING FETUS and THY ART IS MURDER crowds.

What does the near-future generally hold for RIVERS OF NIHIL? Have you got a full year of touring planned? Anywhere you’re visiting for the first time?

Adam: 2018 is shaping up to be one of the busier years of the band’s history. I can’t talk specifics just yet but we’ll definitely be covering North America top to bottom and hopefully other parts of the world that we haven’t been to yet. Keep your eyes peeled on all the social media.

Finally, in a summary of around 15 words, what can fans of RIVERS OF NIHIL expect from Where The Owls Know My Name, and from the band in general over the course of 2018?

Adam: Expect something new and different for us. If we haven’t jived with you in the past, now might be the time to try again.

So there you have it, a brief but exclusive insight into the RIVERS OF NIHIL camp as they gear up for the release of Where Owls Know My Name. If you weren’t pumped before, you certainly should be now!

Where Owls Know My Name is set for release on March 16th via Metal Blade Records.

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