Since the 80’s, death metal has evolved to numerous subgenres that include melodic, progressive, hardcore, and grindcore traits. While maybe not the most popular or mainstream, tech-death seems to have gained a decent amount popularity and bands within the past decade. We sat down with members of Rivers of Nihil during their tour with Beyond Creation to discuss the subgenre and their next album.
When I saw this tour lineup I was just blown away. It’s easily the best tour for fans of technical death metal. What are your thoughts on the bands you’re sharing the stage with tonight?
Adam Biggs: We have The Zenith Passage opening up for us. They just put out a really sweet record, Solipsist. I think that it’s one of the best tech-death records I’ve heard in a long time and definitely one of my favorites of the year. It’s full of awesome riffs and they play so great live. Beyond Creation is headlining and they kill it. They’re just mindblowing musicians.
As this is an amazing lineup showcasing this subgenre, what other bands would you consider to be at the top of modern tech-death?
Adam Biggs: You have a wide array of bands out there. I think the one leading the pack right now is Fallujah. You also have Archspire, Black Crown Initiate, Arkaik, and Ne Obliviscaris. There’s just a bunch of younger guys playing the very technical side of death metal.
Do you think there are a few specific bands that every modern technical death metal band would point to as an influence?
Adam Biggs: There’s a few, sure. I think you’d be hard pressed to find anybody in all the bands we just mentioned that aren’t fans of The Faceless, Necrophagist, or Spawn of Possession.
As a whole, would you say the tech-death scene is at its peak in popularity and quality nowadays?
Brody Uttley: We started our band in 2009 and I think now it’s a lot better than it was. Back then tech-death was like a dirty word, but now it’s honestly like a selling point.
Adam Biggs: I think the difference between this generation of technical death metal versus the last one is there is a much bigger focus on songwriting, composition, and pushing boundaries whether it be orchestral organization or incorporating jazz motifs. There’s a lot more going into it than just playing your guitar fast and well.
Rivers of Nihil’s second record came out last year. Can you discuss the writing process a bit and what you think you brought new to the table of this subgenre?
Brody Uttley: We lost our previous guitarist, Jon Kunz, who left the band before we started writing for Monarchy. So, I pretty much locked myself in my room for six months and wrote all the song except for “Reign of Dreams,” which our new guitarist Jon Topore wrote. As far as the actual writing process, I have a recording studio in my house so it was very easy to demo stuff out and experiment with sounds. For what we’re doing differently with the genre, we had our focus on songwriting and something you can latch onto besides a breakdown. We wanted songs that had themes that come back and even ones from previous releases. I’m also a big fan of post-rock music. Explosions in the Sky and This Will Destroy You are some of my favorite bands, so combining that style with guitars tuned to F creates quite an interesting sound.
Regarding a larger focus on songwriting, are there any bands that inspired that aspect for you?
Adam Biggs: I think the focus has been shifting towards us wanting to write songs like the bigger bands in the genre. We’ve been looking at the leaders of the genre and trying to take tips from people like Gojira, Mastodon, and maybe even Slipknot.
As far as lyrical content, would you say there was a specific theme or message to the material?
Adam Biggs: When I write lyrics, it comes out in the form of environmentalism sometimes because I think I try to widen my perspective as a lyricist. Instead of writing about a person or a place, I’ll go bigger and bigger and it becomes a planet or a universe. But at the same time, it is very personal because a lot of it is about the insignificance you can feel as far as scale when you are a person and there’s so much more than you out there.
Has there been thoughts towards a follow-up yet or is it too soon?
Adam Biggs: We’re doing a little writing here. We have some songs demoed out and so far so good. It might be a little ways off though. If you enjoyed Monarchy and songs like “Sand Baptism,” you’ll be into it. Just less all out blast beats and more of a bigger sound. I’d say it should be out later in 2017.
How do you think tech-death has changed or evolved since the early bands in the late 80’s?
Adam Biggs: So much has happened in terms of accessibility with music. In the 80’s and 90’s, music was more geographical. Bands in Florida were doing death metal, bands in New York were more slammy, and bands overseas were doing black metal. Now with the internet, the genres became melted together. And I think because of that, the influences of any band has grown exponentially.
Brody Uttley: I think in general, musicians are getting better because of the internet. In the early 90’s, you’d have to order a guitar instructional VHS or magazine. But now there’s like fifteen year olds that can play better than seasoned veterans of the genre. There’s so much information out there that is easy to access. I feel like that is what pushed the genre along and allowed so many young musicians playing 250 bpm and insane things like that.
Any further plans coming up you’d like to talk about?
Adam Biggs: We have a couple tours coming up for the end of the year. We’ll be in Europe with Obscura, Revocation, and Beyond Creation in October. And we’ll have some pretty sweet tour announcements before the end of the year.
