Rivers of Nihil is the fifth studio album by American technical death metal band Rivers of Nihil. The album was released on May 30, 2025 via Metal Blade Records. It is the band's first album without founding member and vocalist Jake Dieffenbach, and the first to feature Andy Thomas. Commercially, the album is the band's most successful to date, debuting on multiple charts, debuting at #2 position on the Current Hard Music Albums chart, #7 on the Current Rock Albums chart, #7 on the Independent Label Albums chart.
Background
In April of 2022, the band announced that guitarist Jonathan Topore would be leaving the band, and that Black Crown Initiate guitarist Andy Thomas would be replacing him.
In October of 2022, the band announced that they had parted ways with founding member and vocalist Jake Dieffenbach, and that Adam Biggs would be handling vocal duties on upcoming tours.
In March of 2023, the band announced via social media that they were in the studio recording their fifth full-length album.
On June 15, 2023, the band released its first piece of new music featuring their new members, "The Sub Orbital Blues," with an accompanying music video. The single was engineered, mixed, and mastered by Carson Slovak and Grant McFarland of Atrium Audio, with additional engineering by guitarist Brody Uttley. The band entered the studio again in April of 2024 to record additional material. On April 29, the band released the single "Criminals" with an accompanying music video. The single was recorded during their March 2023 recording session.
In February of 2025, the band shared that their self-titled fifth LP would be released on May 30, and that the album's first single, "House of Light" would debut on February 6. On March 12, the band debuted the single "American Death" with an accompanying music video, and on April 17 the band debuted the single "Water & Time" with an accompanying video. The band shared a guitar play-through of the track "Dustman" on June 10.
Critical reception Rivers of Nihil was the band's highest-debuting album to date, appearing on a number of charts and recording over 2.8 million streams on Spotify in its first week. It was elected by Loudwire as one of the 11 best progressive metal albums of 2025.
Track listing
Charts
+ U.S. Billboard Charts Chart Position Current Hard Music Albums 2 Current Rock Albums 7 Independent Label Albums 7 Current Digital Albums 9 Current Album Sales 23
+ Canada Billboard Charts Chart Position Hard Music Albums 1 Current Digital Albums 7 Top Current Albums 8 LP Vinyl Sales 23
+ Europe Chart PositionOfficial Top 100 Albums DE weekly 60Official Top 100 Albums Downloaded DE weekly 21Official Top 100 Albums Midweek DE weekly 22iTunes Top 10 Albums AT daily 9iTunes Top 100 Albums DE daily 33Official Top 100 Albums CH weekly 87Official Top 20 Rock/Metal Albums DE weekly 12Official Top 75 Albums AT weekly 44
Personnel Rivers of Nihil Adam Biggs – vocals, bass Andy Thomas – guitar, vocals Brody Uttley – guitar, piano, keyboards, programming, additional mixing, additional engineering Jared Klein – drums, vocals Additional personnel Patrick Corona – alto saxophone (1, 4, 5, 6, 9) Stephan Lopez – banjo (3, 10), backing vocals (7) Grant McFarland – cello (4, 6) Ben Umanov, Brian Miler, Mike Manley, Nick Shaw – backing vocals (7) Dan Seagrave – cover art Carson Slovak, Grant McFarland – recording, engineering, mixing, production, mastering Nick Loiacono – additional engineering
References
External links
Rivers of Nihil at Metal Blade