Brody Uttley: Guitar / Keyboards
Adam Biggs: Vocals / Bass
Jared Klein: Drums / Vocals
Andy Thomas: Rhythm Guitar / Vocals

Rivers of Nihil have never fit neatly into a box, but with 2018’s Where Owls Know My Name, they transcended all labels applied to them. Returning in 2021 with The Work, they forged further into new territory, once again upending any expectations fans had placed on them. And now, with a new series of singles recorded in early 2023 that will be released in the coming months and eventually appear together on an album, the band has once again shattered the ceiling of how far they are willing to go in search of new sonic terrain.

The Reading, Pennsylvania-based progressive death metalers spent 2021 and 2022 burning the candle at both ends with a frenzied tour schedule including headline runs of the U.S. and Europe, a jaunt on the European festival circuit and two runs in support of The Black Dahlia Murder and The Contortionist in North America. But once the latter tour wrapped up, they were short a band member.

For personal reasons, founding member and lead vocalist Jake Dieffenbach and the band went their separate ways. The split took place just three days after the recording of a live video and audio session for Audiotree‘s new ‘From Nothing‘ series, which was released on April 20, 2023. And while initially the band wasn’t sure how to approach the release with the departure of a founding member and lead singer – or whether to release it at all – they decided to move forward with it to honor Dieffenbach’s contributions to the group over the years and mark the beginning of a new chapter.

In March 2023, Rivers of Nihil wrapped up a recording session that saw the now four-piece band birth a considerable amount of new music featuring their previous bassist/backup vocalist Adam Biggs as the new lead vocalist/bassist. This recording session also marked the first appearance of new guitarist Andy Thomas (ex-Black Crown Initiate), whose vocals also play prominently in the music, as a member of Rivers of Nihil. These new singles are the first to showcase the band’s new lineup in full-on collaboration, and demonstrates that while this is a new, brave sound with tons of potential, it also carries the band’s classic energy.

Incorporating elements drawn from myriad genres – including death metal, groove, grunge, electronica, slam, gothic rock, jazz, prog and more – and pushing progressive death metal in ever more imaginative directions, Time Will Take Us All proved that ENTHEOS continues to evolve with every release. Metal Hammer UK lauded a band, “poised to morph from a promising project into tech metal titans,” New Noise Magazine championed, “one of the best versions of modern riff–y progressive death metal we have now,” while Loudwire added, “the band plays with lockstep precision, turning the gears of their technical death metal machine as it steamrolls forward.”

The future of British metal lies in safe hands with CONJURER, who continue their journey as the country’s most exciting young metal band with their incredible new album Páthos (Nuclear Blast).

A triumphant return from CONJURER following their world-renowned 2018 debut Mire, Páthos is a band flexing their creative muscles, deepening their approach and thought, and expanding their sound.

Opener ‘It Dwells’ is the perfect introduction – earth-shatteringly heavy, unconventional, uniquely beautiful, and instantly recognisable as CONJURER. The track is centred on the contradictions of the emotion of ‘fear’ – that fear can be comfortable and constant, haunting and crushing. It builds to a point of breaking – the need to end fear battling against your will to go on. The repeated screams ‘I’ll have peace’ are an ambivalent declaration of defiance – give in, or fight, either way fear is gone.

Track two ‘Rot’ continues this theme – a lumbering monster of a song, it’s a conversation between a person’s sense of self and their anxieties. As the song progresses both perspectives unify – the ‘I’ becoming ‘we’, the two halves becoming one. It’s a tortured, battered listening experience, and a blistering reminder of why the young band have become so praised so quickly.

Páthos is not an album for the half-hearted or faint-hearted. Elements of Sumac, Gojira, old Mastodon and Sumac, the new record is a multi-layered beast – sludge, death, doom, black metal and hardcore influences clash and collide throughout, all masterfully finished by Will Putney’s exquisite production.

The fifty-minute runtime of Páthos is not without it’s moments of the sublime. Post-metal nods to CONJURER and PIJN’s acclaimed Curse These Metal Hands project are heard throughout, most notably in track three, ‘All You Will Remember’, and the mighty, philosophical closer ‘Cracks In The Pyre’.

An suitably open-ended climax, Páthos ends with an expansive look at loss and the afterlife. That a band can be at once so triumphantly beautiful and gut-punchingly heavy is testament to CONJURER’s quality, and a surefire sign of their future longevity at the top of Britain’s heavy music scene.

CONJURER’s debut full-length Mire (2018) was released to a storm of attention from across the metal world, garnering significant acclaim from Metal Hammer UK, Kerrang!, BBC R1, Visions Mag (DE), MetalSucks, Metal Injection, Loudwire and many more. Recipients of award nominations (Kerrang!, Heavy Music Awards, Metal Hammer’s Golden Gods) and countless albums of the year lists, Mire is a stunning listen, capturing the attitude of a young band who already know exactly who they are.

Hailed as one of the metal world’s most devastating, thrilling experiences, CONJURER are a band never content to rest. Following Mire’s release in 2018 the quartet soon toured Europe for the first time, appeared at multiple UK festivals, and support of doom titans Conan and Will Haven.

In the following years the band have toured the US twice, supporting Rivers of Nihil (stopping to record an Audiotree session along the way), and then Voivod, with Revocation. 2019 also saw CONJURER’s debut Download Festival appearance, thrilling a packed-out Dogtooth stage, and the release of the joyous collaborative project with Pijn, titled Curse These Metal Hands.

It was only at the end of 2019 that CONJURER closed out their triumphant Mire cycle, with a sold-out UK run – their debut headline tour. Using the COVID-19 pandemic to record and craft Páthos, CONJURER returned to the live setting performing at the Download Pilot 2021 and Bloodstock 2021 mainstages.

CONJURER are:

Brady Deeprose (guitars, vocals)
Dan Nightingale (guitars, vocals)
Conor Marshall (bass)
Jan Krause (drums)

Bay Area Blackened Hardcore. Our new album ‘Loyal to the Soil’ out April 27th on Prosthetic Records.

Cannibal Abortion is a savage force in the underground death metal scene, blending brutal slam, grind, and gore-soaked intensity into a relentless sonic assault. Known for chaotic live shows and grotesque themes, Cannibal Abortion exists to push boundaries and leave a trail of destruction in their wake. No compromise. No mercy. Straight from chicago.