Introducing: River Stole Gods

German band River Stole Gods fuse modern metalcore with progressive influences to hone an atmospheric sound that drags you in with engaging choruses and spits you out with vicious vocals and powerful riffs. The Düsseldorf trio describe their progressive metalcore sound as “energetic, impulsive and heavy.”

The trio of Adam (bass), Lasse (vocals) and Raphael (guitars and programming) began when Adam’s former band split up in 2018 and he began searching for musicians to start a new project. He discovered Raphael via Facebook, they quickly met up and, while eating fries and walking through Düsseldorf talking about vision and ambition, they formulated a plan for River Stole Gods.

And on the sound they’ve honed since, Adam tells us: “I would describe us as a well-balanced mix of more complex, rather rhythm-driven riffs for lovers of progressive tunes and hard-hitting breakdowns.”

Our first taste of this was their recent single Holding On, which is the first in the New Eyes single trilogy. It starts out with high-pitched synth sounds, which continue faintly in the background under a chunky darting riff. It explodes into a powerful opening verse of intense vocals, driving drums and stabbing guitars, before the synths jump back in to feed into a big chorus.

A second verse gives way to a low-tuned stabbing guitar riff that’s joined by a huge guttural growl and a piercing guitar joins in as it builds to another chorus. The second chorus ends with everything dropping out, then a building synth sound and chugging guitars support vicious growls and intense vocals to bring the track to an end.

On the track, Adam says: “The reception was exciting, as we recorded the full single trilogy in one of our home studios DYI and it was super cold at that time – back in February 2021 there was a heavy blizzard raging around and we had to pass a huge courtyard to get nearly everywhere: to the studio, to the kitchen, to the bedrooms. It was a super fun week for us. From Holding On as the first chapter of the trilogy you can expect a driving intro into an intense sound world and story of New Eyes.” Give it a listen here:

That’s just been followed by the second single in the trilogy Surviving Death, which was released on Friday (25 November). It opens up with a noodling little riff that jumps into chunky guitars then vicious vocals supported by heavy instrumentals. A funky riff comes in as it builds towards dramatic clean vocals through the chorus.

That gives way to a cool stabbing riff as intense vocals lead a short verse straight back into a chorus. The chorus ends on a big scream as the guitars intensify under vicious guttural vocals to bring the track to a heavy conclusion. Check it out in the video here:

If you like what you heard in these two tracks then there’s plenty more to check out from the band, with two EPs Apparitions and Sky Architects released in 2020. But we want to specifically call out the absolutely delicious Collapse, from the Sky Architects record. Give it a listen here:

The River Stole Gods sound has been shaped by fellow heavy and technical metal bands. Adam’s biggest influences include Architects, Karnivool and Tesseract, Lasse picks out Lorna Shore, and Raphael picks Monuments and Loathe as his biggest musical inspirations.

And on what inspires them to write music, Adam explains: “Our songs are very often socio-critic or deal with personal experiences that mark big turning points in one of our lives.”

It’s been a little while since we featured any German bands on the site – nearly a year in fact! – so we asked Adam for his thoughts on their local scene. He told us: “The German rock/ metal scene is super vivid. There are a lot of talented young bands as well as Germany is a great country for music. There are so many festivals and help packages, you can take as a band. But to be honest, it is extremely hard to pop out in the mass of great bands nowadays and grow a community. I think that is the most difficult thing because, when you get to have a community, everything is possible.”

River Stole Gods will release the final song in the New Eyes trilogy shortly and also plan to record and release new music and tour Europe through 2023.

You can follow River Stole Gods on Facebook and Instagram, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.