Getting to Know… River Of Souls | Interview 🎤

For the 107^th interview on The Musical Hype, we get some insight into the ‘doomed heavy death metal’ Dutch collective, River Of Souls.

“We’re not a band with an original style, but I think we have made an album that’s diverse enough to play it many times in a row.” Sounds intriguing to say the least River Of Souls, particularly when the previous lines excerpted from the interview surround a ‘doomed heavy death metal style’ – hehe! The Dutch collective features five members: Bart de Greef, Paul Beltman, Benjamin Hoogers, Koen Spierings, and Mathijs vd Sande.  Without further ado, let’s just let Getting to Know… River of Souls: Interview #107 speak for itself, shall we?

Let’s get this started off right. For those who may not be familiar with River of Souls, what would you say makes your band distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

Well, we play a style that we call Doomed Heavy Death Metal. It’s a mixture of Death metal and Doom metal, with parts of all kinds of metal and rock, mostly molded into New Wave of British Heavy Metal structures. We’re not a band with an original style, but I think we have made an album that’s diverse enough to play it many times in a row.

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did River Of Souls form and what were some of the goals or the visions you had as a band early on? 

When we started River Of Souls, I didn’t really have the desire to play live with River Of Souls. My only goal was to bring my music, and I hoped people would acknowledge my writing skills (not sure if I really have any). That acknowledgment didn’t come literally until we released our 2^nd full length album. Although some reviewers mentioned something similar with our earlier releases though. By now, I only hope to reach more people, but it isn’t easy with the music concoctions we make. Mostly because we currently live in a time people don’t have the patience to listen to a complete album; they prefer to get the idea of a band in 5 minutes or less. That will not work with River Of Souls, you’ll need to hear at least 30 minutes of our albums to understand what we’re doing. Which is a musical journey through doom metal, death metal, heavy metal, sometimes easy listening, sometimes atmospheric, and sometimes plainly heavy or brute.

Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?  

As said, the current goal is to reach more people, but also do a number of live shows, through Europe.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

Nowadays I usually let me inspire more by musical ideas, atmosphere, and sounds, than by the style of bands. Of course, we are a death metal/doom metal band, but in the core, the music I write and especially the way our tracks and albums are built, is influenced by bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica’s (’84-’88 albums), Helloween’s Keeper albums, Morbid Angel’s Blessed are the Sick, etc. Those bands managed to create albums that are a journey on their own. Take a Metallica album for instance : 1^st track is relatively short and fast, 2^nd track is longer, and shows more faces, 3^rd track is slower but heavier, 4^th song is a ballad, 5^th song is like the 2^nd, 6^th song is like the 3^rd, 7^th song is a long instrumental, and the 8^th song is fast again and wraps up the album, leaving you with the feeling you need to spin that record again. The whole sequence of songs is well thought through. Many modern ‘selling’ albums, start with the best and catchiest tracks, and after song 4 you’re done listening. You already heard the best tracks, and the remaining stuff is similar but just not as good as the first 3 or 4.  This is what works for most current listeners, but it’s not what I prefer, I’m a real album listener, and that’s also what I’m aiming at with my music.  I try to give the album a specific flow, not just a collection of tracks. Like a journey, a short film, or a story of 45 to 50 minutes. Changing moods, changing settings, changing styles. And I think we managed to create that with our latest release Usurper.  I’m not saying that album is as good as the bands mentioned. Besides that, our style is completely different so not comparable in that way, hahaha!

Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

Hmmmm… The wackiest thing that I experienced was not with River Of Souls, but with Sinister. Balkan tour, in 2006 I believe. I will never forget that. It was all organised by the gentle giant Boris. The third day of the mini tour we played in Sarajevo, which was probably the most emotional encounter with an audience a death metal band can get.  We were more or less the first foreign death metal band to play in these regions after the civil war of former Yugoslavia. Just before the war really escalated there, somebody in Sarajevo has bought the first 2 albums of Sinister. So, during the war, these albums were tape traded in Sarajevo, making them real classics. So, when we played tracks like “Sadistic Intent”, “Epoch Of Denial”, and “Cross The Styx”, we could really feel what that meant for the audience over there. There were literally men standing with tears in their eyes… It was really something.

After the show, we went to sleep at somebody’s place, and the guys from the Serbian death metal band Sacramental Blood also slept over there (killer band by the way), I drank a few shots of Slivovic with them, we smoked some weed together, we shared some really crazy stories, laughed my ass off, and went to bed at 3 A.M. To get out of bed at 6:30 and get a 16-hour drive in a van, with only 2x 5-minute stops, to Sofia, to arrive at a gig and immediately walk to the stage to play a set again. That show is filmed with a handy cam or phone and can be found on YouTube. Unbelievable that we managed to play fairly decent after such long drive. I can assure you, after sitting 16 hours in a van, you really just don’t feel like doing anything at all. Everything aches. Your back, your ass, and your head. But the moment you see the fans that are excited to see you, you forget that shit, and you perform to satisfy the fans, and the fans make it all worth it. Day 3 and 4 of the 5-day mini tour. 2 insane days that I’ll never forget.

Although I must admit I barely forget a gig. And the time I played with Sinister was in a rough period of my life but playing with the guys in Sinister is an experience that I truly cherish. Hanging around with my bandmates Aad, Alex and Bas, the shows we played, the people we met, and the places we’ve visited…

Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

It’s difficult to name one…  I think I’ll go for “Prometheus Unbound” when it comes to composition, and “Soilsorcerer” regarding playing live. “Soilsorcerer” is our most popular song, and in my opinion it’s one of our simplest to play tracks, so I can really let go the focus with that one, and completely feel the atmosphere together with the audience.

“Prometheus Unbound” is in my eyes our best song, because of many reasons. Composition-wise, it brings many moods, styles, and interesting ideas on the guitar and drums. You could almost say “Prometheus Unbound” includes all aspects we do, in a single track of 8 to 9 minutes.  But here I’m only still talking about the musical instruments. Our vocalist Bart really upgraded the song to what it is with his input of text, vocal lines, and his performance. The reason why we released this track separately, and why it’s not on the record, is because it’s a short album on its own. But there are many other tracks that I’m really proud of!

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

I cannot think of anything here… well, maybe people should check out other Dutch bands.  Officium Triste made an outstanding album last year, titled The Death of Gaia. Into The Arcane is a Dutch band on the rise, that has a unique sound in my opinion. And Phlebotomized and Laster are awesome bands that should be checked in case you haven’t heard of them yet.

Closing this thing out, what is Rivers of Soul currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure. 

Well…. Not entirely sure. It looks like we’re going to do a live streaming/ rehearsal recording or something in October, or, we might start recording an EP. It depends a bit on the technical side of things. Our drummer Koen’s rehearsal room will be made ready for recording both audio and video, but it’s not cheap, and we’re not sure how long it will take before it’s completely operational, or if it’ll be up to par sound-wise.

Thank you so much for sharing taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward.   

Thank you and thank you for showing interest in River Of Souls!

Photo Credits: Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype, River of Souls