ID.ENTITY

Long gone are the days of the giants of 00s. From the generic new release of Porcupine Tree to the rapid downfall of Haken, it looks like we don't have anymore those bands whose albums devastatingly land like bombs on the grounds of the prog community, collecting thousands of votes with the average rating of 4.1+. Prog is far from dead, but it is now moved forward by forces of, luckily numerous, modest lesser-known bands springing up unpredictably all over the place.

What about the Riverside, whose first albums keep their rightful place in the annals of progressive metal? To be honest, I was skeptical that the band could exist after the death of the guitarist, but Wasteland proved to be quite solid; moreover, his trademark soloing was hard to find on LFTM already. So, despite the massive loss, the band is moving on, now releasing yet another new album with the updated line-up. The latest solo efforts by band members have also been very decent, so there clearly is still a ton of potential.

The second post-Grudziński album is, just like its predecessor, solid. It does not look, however, like the band has evolved in any way since the times of Reality Dream. There are some new sources of inspiration, but they are questionable (read "poppy"). So what we get here is average Riverside slightly adulterated with mainstream influences. From a band of this caliber, you probably expect more?

One other problem with the album is its concept. It seems that some bands are better off with abstract whimsical lyrics like RS were at the beginning of their journey; Anno Domini already was a rant about modern society, but at least the delivery was not as straightforward and naive; it also was 15 years ago, though even then it didn't look too fresh. I'd normally not pay too much attention, but the band literally forces me to attend to the concept by bringing musical dynamism to its altar: take, for example, the annoying spoken word in Big Tech Brother, or the vocals of The Place Where I Belong which sound like a spoken rant much more than singing. They even use the f-word for the first time (not counting "f you" in Artificial Smile). I wish I could cut it all out. Maybe one should finally unsubscribe from shitty Facebook communities (upon writing this I realize that it's exactly the band's suggestion in one of the songs)?..

Musically, the best things here are where Riverside sound like themselves, e.g. on the two shorter tracks, or on the 20- minute instrumental treat of the bonus disk, which sounds like an EP from the good old days of classical Riverside. Everything else, while enjoyable, does not strike me as essential. I don't think I will be coming back to this album after a while.

Still, the album is not to be ignored: the band is incapable of playing bad music. "Good, but not essential" is the precise description.