Weekly Review: Rivers of Nihil – Where Owls Know My Name
hello folks! our weekly review this week is Rivers of Nihil’s Where Owls Know My Name – lets get into it!
vocals are always gonna be a bit of a point of tension for me with metal – ill be upfront and say that i never developed a taste for some of the more gruff, coarse, or abrasive vocal styles. im pretty adaptable, but it def takes me longer to warm up to some of the rougher vocal styles. it does provide a really interesting opportunity for contrast here though – the three different vocals styles on the title track, Where Owls Know My Name, stack up against each other neatly, for example, and that helps amplify the somber opening of Capricorn / Agoratopia immediately after. i did enjoy the lyrical content quite a bit – reading up on it a bit, this was the third in a series of seasonal record, with this record being autumn. i like them taking that a bit further and exploring a kind of “fall” of a human life – pretty neat premise!
i may not be a huge fan of the hoarse vocal delivery here, but i will say i fucking LOVED the drums. they absolutely knew when to hang in the back as the backbone for a track and when to go absolutely pull out all the fucking stops.
the sax use on this record is killer – it provides an excellent kinda interlude on The Silent Life, Subtle Change has a long solo that precedes an excellent guitar/drum breakdown combo, and the bridge on Where Owls Know My Name is an excellent moment.
the pacing here is interesting too. Terrestria III: Wither as a follow up to Subtle Change is neat, going from the soaring heights to a song that starts mellower but brings in and builds some menacing industrial sounds. the mood here is consistently moody, brooding, and dramatic in a cinematic kinda way.
on the whole, pretty solid listen for me.
faves –
dislikes –
Where Owls Know My Name – 6/10
for the next Weekly Album Review, i’ll be taking a look at The Campfire Headphase, by Boards of Canada. i’ll be back on Friday, June 14th, with that review and to pick another weekly record, and in the meantime, let me know what album you’d like me to review! (i pool all suggestions in one place, and draw a person, then one pick from that person, so feel free to drop as many as you’d like! if you leave an email or username i’ll contact you when i’ve gotten through all your suggestions.
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