LIVE ID.

Recorded on June 1st, 2024 at COS Torwar in Warsaw, 'Live ID.' completes the 'ID.Entity' album cycle with a limited edition 2CD+Blu-ray Digipak, a gatefold 3LP on 180g vinyl or as digital album, but no matter how you get this, you will be treated to 12 songs and 110 minutes of music. Right from the off the band set out their stall with the Floydian and bass-driven "#Addicted" from 2015's 'Love, Fear and the Time Machine'. Singer and bassist Mariusz Duda is always in full control, providing basslines which often form the main melody, while the only other constant, drummer Piotr Kozieradzki, keeps it tight at the back, never over playing. The role of keyboard player Michał Łapaj is often to provide curtains of sound to wrap everything within, and then we get the attack of guitarist Maciej Meller which gives us the crunch and allows the band to become very heavy when the time is right.

I have been a fan of the band ever since Artur Chachlowski gave me a copy of their debut album 20 years ago and told me this Polish outfit was going to be huge, and there is no doubt that to Western ears they have been the biggest prog band to come out of that country in the last few decades. They have a polished sound which only comes from bands full of experience and musicianship who have total faith in their own ability, and it is in the live environment where they really shine. The arrangements are tighter and there is a real punch, driven as always by the dynamic bass playing of Duda. It is his approach and style which makes Riverside what it is, providing the heft and cutting through the keyboards while also ensuring the guitar has something weighty to lean against. On top of that, he is one of the most melodic singers around, a combined role which few have managed to completely dominate the way he does.

I was not the biggest fan of 'ID.Entity', feeling it was somewhat smothering and that it was not worth the mass attention it had received which I felt was due more to it being the first album in five years as opposed to a great work, but here the songs from that set have a new life and vibrance. The result is a band who are really cooking, at the top of their game, in front of a home crowd who are more than happy to singalong when they are given the opportunity, which means this is a live album definitely worth investigating.