RIVERSIDE

Riverside is certainly a band with a great potential. They have displayed a certain style of composition, and they are certainly capable of soaring melodies.

They just don't show it very often...

SONGS is just that: A couple of songs to be played. Although this is a rather refreshing approach in a genre that is based on pretentious bombasm, it just does not work: The result is rather banal than simple. The arrangements are rather lacking phantasy than displaying a back-to-the-roots mentality. The singing is rather emotionless than simplistic... Get a picture?

What remains is cleverly constructed material that aims at being sold. Yes, I would take it upon me to call this a rather blatantly commercially inclined piece of work. This in itself would not mean that it had to be bad... but the music has actually suffered from this approach, and I heartily recommend rather getting one of the older albums.

I had known of Riverside for some time now, but ADHD is my first shot at understanding the Polish progressive metal group. I must have had a really bad first few tastes at progressive metal for I really feel left out that I hadn't gotten this any sooner. The songs on ADHD are semi- long to fairly long (about the standards of a King Crimson or a Genesis), and combine 5 movement songs into one not-so-obviously unified whole. And it's only around 45 minutes which is quite an important statement in the music scene today.

But the key to the album is really in the music itself. This is progressive metal that shows off its chops only when it feels it has to. Even in the longer bouts, Riverside just seem to let the songs write themselves. There are no kneejerk transitions, very few unnecessary extensions/notes, and the album is done without any cheese factor. It's a triple win from right there.

But it keeps getting better. Mariusz Duda must have been spinning Porcupine Tree's BLANK PLANET album because I can detect similarities in both of their concepts being tongue-and- cheek observations on post-2000 techno-society. The song ''Egoist Hedonist'' is the only one that I can detect any PT musical influence, but Riverside leave it at just influence, especially with the banjo-sounding theme at the end. Keyboard player Michal Lapaj deserves a special mention for his arsenal of instruments getting many vintage sounds along with contemporary ones all benefitting the music and not distracting from it. Listen to ''Hybrid Times'' to really get the full effect of the Hammond organ sounds and how pivotal they are to the ''discorporate-to-the-music'' feel in the same way Ikey Owens has that ability on some Mars Volta tracks.

One of the most important aspects of any album I've been concerning myself with recently is the overall pace of the album; ADHD is paced beautifully. It begins with the aptly titled ''Hyperactive'' to grab the listener's attention, but then the album varies the mood throughout the album. And to culminate on one of the greatest epic tracks in recent memory, ''Hybrid Times'' (the highlight of the album), is money; the final notes let the listener know the album as a whole did build to something. Then there's ''Left Out'', one of the more mid-tempo points on the album, but to set the final piece the way it does is masterful. The song itself does what I had mentioned earlier in that it doesn't seem like a strictly composed piece, as it's more like a song that writes itself. And all throughout that number, the lead guitar punctuates the mood so accurately and effectively that it's easy to get lost in its atmosphere.

This album is ideal for any fan of progressive metal. If you haven't been sure about what the genre could do for you, ADHD is one of those albums that can blow your mind.

I must say, this album is one that has pleasantly surprised and challenged me in a way I was not expecting. I truly did not know what to think of it the first time I heard it. I knew it was progressive, I knew it was Riverside, I knew there was talent in the playing and writing, but it was very different from what I was expecting. There were passages that were very subdued, pensive, and ultimately accessible. This accessibility even translated into the more hit- oriented songs, such as Celebrity Touch and Feel Like Falling. These were tracks that I knew were not nearly as complex as those I usually gravitate towards, but in the context of the whole album, they don't seem as susceptible to losing their power after a few listens as one might expect. Basically, this album was a chance to help me pull down the walls of pretension and enjoy the whole and its parts for the merits they hold in their message, their directness, and how friendly and accessible they are, unlike so much of the progressive genre, especially among the more metal-oriented groups.

To be more direct, the saving grace to this album is its unified theme as conveyed through each track: striving to live a meaningful, fulfilling life in spite of a multitude of obstacles we face as members of modern society. Musically, the more direct, streamlined song structures actually compliment this concept in a way more over-the-top or free-form arrangements would not. With that being said, there is still plenty of complexity within several tracks to keep even the most discerning listener intrigued. The soar-away peak of the album, "Escalator Shrine", falls into this category, with its alternating 10/8 and 9/8 blues- inspired riff as Mariusz Duda communicates a truly powerful message of a stagnant, empty generation. We are treated to a wonderful, explosive demonstration of the instrumental talents of each members in the following sections, culminating in a biting breakdown following the final brooding statement of words, and the song fades in a chant-like outro following the alternating 6 and 5 beat pattern established by the instruments.

In contrast to the power demonstrated by this track and the more hit-oriented songs referenced earlier, Riverside presents us with a few ballads that in my mind sit amongst the most superior of softer selections. This band really is at their best when they're writing ballads. The softer, sweeter song "The Depth of Self-Delusion" is very soulful, laying groundwork for the atmospheric message unifying the entire album. "We Got Used to Us" is a sorrowful reflection on a stagnant relationship than encapsulates the experience wonderfully, at least from the perspective of a listener who can relate to the message. The absolute best ballad in my mind, though, is the ever-evolving "Deprived". Instrumentally, this is the most intriguing ballad on the disc, and for me, of the band's entire catalog I have heard up to this point. The varied keyboard textures, Duda's masterful singing and bass playing, and the unexpected addition of soprano sax was a breath of fresh air to me. Hearing that reminded me that prog truly does still have many new frontiers to cover. This song and "Escalator Shrine" alone are enough to revitalize the genre in my book, and the rest of the album is so rewarding too that I can't help but give it truly sincere and emphatic praise.

This album is truly unlike any album the band has released to date. It strips away the atmosphere generated by the Reality Dream trilogy and reigns in the metal aspects explored on the previous album. I do not think this album is a prog metal album, nor should any listener treat it as one. This album is more eclectic-meets-crossover prog, as it draws on so many other genres and embraces more traditional song forms for certain tracks. The lead guitar does not have the same degree of prominence as it had on, say, Second Life Syndrome, but the playing is not inferior. The focus has merely shifted to accommodate a more vocal- and keyboard-oriented album, which to me indicates just how full Riverside's bag of tricks really is. In short, if you go in to this ready to hear an album that marries old and new rock traditions, both progressive and as a whole, while still preserving the edge and false modesty of this group's talents both individually and collectively, you will not be disappointed. There's something for everyone here, and I for one am inspired by the powerful message, compositional prowess, and top-notch playing by each member more and more with each listen. 5 stars given proudly and without hesitation.

Riverside is a band that always have two reactions from the audience, love or hate. Just a few people stay in the middle of the road. I'm a Riverside fan. They're one of the few bands that I actually have all of the albums including two special editions.

It's been 4 years since Anno Domini High Definition (2009), their last studio album, was released and Shrine Of New Generation Slaves (2013) is the name of the new album.

With the same line up as always: Mariusz Duda (vocals, bass, acoustic guitars and ukulele), Piotr Grudziński (guitars), Piotr Kozieradzki (drums) and Michał Łapaj (keyboards). The album was recorded, mixed and mastered at Serakos Studio in Poland between March and October 2012 and was produced by the band together with Magda and Robert Srzedniccy. The band often refers to the album as SONGS (the short version of the album's name). If it was intentional or not I cannot say. What I can say is that SONGS turned out to be the best album by the Riverside so far.

In the beginning of the composition process they said that this album would be different from the previous one, and that's true. Shrine Of New Generation Slaves (2013) is different but with all the band's elements included.

The opening track 'New Generation Slave' has a Hard Rock feeling mixed with a Blues sentiment to it. You can also feel that the band went back to the 70's sound in terms of guitar distortions. It's heavy, but not in the Metal way. In fact, the overall sound on SONGS is just perfect. Basses, guitars, drums and keyboards with the best tones possible, everything ending in the great songs.

'The Depth Of Self-Delusion' begins and I realize once again how good Mariusz Duda voice is. Clean and full of emotion. The first single 'Celebrity Touch' is a heavy brick on the window! Fast and heavy riff with Hammond Organ, the cherry on the cake. And then the trip continues through the beautiful piano and melody of 'We Got Used To Us', the 'modern-retro' beat of 'Feel Like Falling', and the space feeling in 'Deprived'. The longest song on the album is 'Escalator Shrine', and you gotta love the bass lines of Mariusz, always clever and out of the common place that the bass found itself in the last years of Prog Rock. This track is also the most Pink Floydish in SONGS, mainly because of the good Michał's keyboards.

To finish the album there is a short 'Coda'. Just acoustic guitars, vocals and keyboards with the melody of the first track. Perfect ending to the possible best album of 2013.

10/10

Strange when you see the best as the worst and worst as the best?

When it comes to my reviews I am so biased as to be able to go against the tide. In my case, it is easier to give high ratings to albums with low scores lower than otherwise. With Riverside both situations occurred. While I in Second Life Syndrome I saw the least favorite of the five they've released so far (although you want to listen more times to really mature this idea), Rapid Eye Movemente was a wonderful surprise for me, a criminally underrated masterpiece that caught my attention, not immediately, but now does so with wonderful ability.

Although Rapid Eye Movement not take the band to new directions, still remains by far the better and stronger the Reality Dream Trilogy. There is a strong feeling cyclical here, evidenced by the end of the last song, the epic Ultimate Trip, where we hear the same sounds "radio being tuned" ears at the opening of The Same River, the first song from their debut Out of Myself. Besides this, there are other highlights here, such as opening Into the Eyelids (which is a start!), Rainbow Box, 02 Panic Room (love the metallic feel of the drums and his final piece, not matching the rest of the song) Parasomnia (my favorite here), and Embryonic Cybernetic Pillow. So as you see, practically the whole album is a highlight.

5 stars, well deserved! I hope more people will recognize the value of this work!

Riverside, or as I like to call them...the fine line between Opeth and Porcupine Tree.

Ok...I have claimed to have call the band that in the past, and to be honest, was the reason I got into the band...but...can we really pigeon hole the band with a tag like that. Well...yes and no.

With the bands first 3 albums, they did have a a very Porcupine Tree/Opeth feel to them, with a heavy prog sound accompanied by an almost Gothic tone. But, their last 3 albums, including this album, seem to adopted a more prog rock tone, and the metal/heavy elements have been toned down to suit the bands more experimental needs. So in my verdict, with every experiment these guys partake...the better a band they become. And this album proves it.

Musically, these guys have seem to have crafted an album I always wanted them to craft. A prog rock album, with actual songs, experimental sections, a heavy sound and also...they seem to be having a lot of fun as well, which really helps, because if the band are having a good time making this music, then the audience will enjoy the album a lot more.

The album, being a concept album, deals with a lot of interesting topics, such as modern society, pop culture and one of the biggest themes...the idea of who we are and everyone's feeling of loss in today's world. Now, being a Polish band, sometimes their lyrics aren't the best grammatically speaking, but I always enjoy when a foreign band writes in a different language to their own, mainly because a foreigner can always use language in a different way to us English speakers.

Musically these guys have never been better. Some of the instrumental sections are incredibly impressive, and now and then you can hear traces of influence, but they are enable to incorporate a lot more personality, which leaves the listener always on his toes. The only problem I've had with this band is Mariusz's vocals. I'm not saying their bad...but they aren't the best. But, on this album,it seems that Mariusz sees his flaws, and instead of making them better, he works more on what he can do, then what he cant.

1. New Generation Slave - An odd and rather exciting way to open the album off. One of the bands most grooviest songs, with some pretty kick ass riffs throughout. 9/10

2. The Depth Of Self-Delusion - An interesting almost ballad like song. Has some interesting lyrics now and then and has some nice moments throughout, but I do feel that this song could have been cut down a little length wise. 8/10

3. Celebrity Touch - The single from the album (check out the music video by the way, it's good). One of the albums obvious catchy and most memorable moments. A brilliantly arranged songs, with some interesting progressions throughout. 10/10

4. We Got Used To Us ? A beautiful ballad on the album, with some beautiful piano arrangements. One of my favorite songs by far from this band. 10/10

5. Feel Like Falling - One of the album's most catchiest songs. A great chorus and some nice groovy moments. 9/10

6. Deprived (Irretrievably Lost Imagination) - Probably my favorite song on the album. A very 'Radiohead Ok Computer' meets Dark Side Of The Moon style of a song, with some nice melancholic moments. The saxophone in this song is brilliant, and Mariusz's vocals in this song even surprise me a little at times. 10/10

7. Escalator Shrine - It wouldn't be a Riverside album without an "epic". Now this does usually follow the usual Riverside epic structure, being in 2 parts and all that, but...this is probably my favourite epic from these guys. Part 1 shows some nice almost pop like moments, while part 2 is more of a prog/ theatrical style. The epic prog bit is seen in part 3, and boy is it epic. Also, this song ends on one of these guys' most kick ass riffs, and overall, shows how amazing instrumentally this band can be. 10/10

8. Coda - The return of the "Feel Like Falling" motif. Brilliant ending to the album. 10/10

CONCLUSION: Usually Riverside don't impress me too much and I usually end up pushing them to one side. Because of this album, I now take back all negativity I had towards them. This album surprised and really impressed me. This by far is their greatest achievement to date, and I await another masterpiece from these guys soon.

8.6/10

8/10

I do not think it is very normal in the world of music albums premieres are so good and so well-produced. In some cases we have progressive rock, as In the Court of King Crimson, Storia di un Minute and others, and it would be unfair to say that Riverside is not in that pantheon as well.

While this is a record superior to its successor, (the lightly overestimated Second Life Syndrome), is not up to their last two albums, taken for me as masterpieces and that part of my collection of favorites (maybe I will have the idea that his trilogy "Reality Dream" is not as good as they say, but this is an idea that I have yet to mature). Nevertheless, I can see the quality of this band. For a debut, they are fully mature, skilled at what they do, and still have the benefit of a great production that highlights all the instruments. If the best benefit is low, and so I can see that Mariusz Duda is a brilliant bassist, one of today's best in my opinion, just as Justin Chancellor (the best) and John Myung.

Duda is also a great vocalist. Imagine if Mikael Akerfeldt decided to only use clean vocals and you have a good idea of the voice of this guy (he occasionally offers some screams and growls, but it is too little to bother me), but this comparison does not limit the vocal quality of it, I I think it deserves to be better known. If pleasant tone of voice, gentle combines with atmospheric and melodic cliam proposed by banda here and on their albums. Influences óbivas here are Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, Pink Floyd, but the band emerges to make their own musicality.

The first song is The Same River, and hear it gave me an impression highly elevated from the rest of the album. This is one of the best songs of introduction to an album I've ever heard in my life (and still on a debut album!). An epic 12 minutes, with a Floyd-esque vibe. Opening with the sound of a radio being tuned and voices, epdaços music (can there be anything more Floyd-esque?), Before the atmospheric keyboards of Jacek Melnicki enter, followed by Gilmour-esque guitar Piotr Grudzinski and low poignant Duda. About two minutes, Piotr Kozieradzki begins to rumble on drums and the music starts to grow slowly. It's a slow process, but brilliant. I love to break 4:15, with the guitar and mastering new time signatures coming into play. The vocals come at 6 minutes, and I love the effects used by Grudzinski, are so cool. The last part of the song is very melancholic and beautiful, with a powerful guitar solo. Hear that sound atmospheric / melodic in his Riverside debut reminds me of neo-prog bands, especially Pendragon and Arena.

Unfortunately the rest of the album does not equate to this wonderful song. I mean, there extamente bad songs here, just good or medians. I would quote I Dream Reality, In Two Minds and Ok as other highlights, although the other five songs each have their value. It is precisely because of this that I give this album four stars.

Still, it is a powerful debut. Even with a bumpy beginning, Riverside has improved more and more over these ten years of career and established himself as one of the strongest names in metal and progressive rock of recent times.

I honestly find so many of Riverside's releases to be kind of overrated, with only their debut really holding my attention. Shrine of New Generation Slaves has not prompted me to change my mind. This time around I can tell that the band are trying to work a few more Pink Floyd influences into their sound - I can tell because they keep using that "telephone" filter effect on the vocals which bands trying to mimic Pink Floyd can't seem to leave alone - but classic-era Floyd would be embarrassed to put out an album quite as riddled with cliches as this one. Strip away the Floydian affectations and many of the songs boil down to fairly typical hard rock ballads - ballads with hilariously sophomoric lyrics. Call me the buzzkilling king of all spoilsports, but I just don't get the appeal.

Every time Riverside realeses something new I always have big expectations and this one is another great album that satisfies them! This very different related to the previous one in the way that it is very more melodic and has less heavey riffs than Anno Domini High Definition. But on the other side they have introduced something new than the previous albums. The keyboards are simply fantastic, the singer has made a step further, but the only thing that I miss are those fantastic and unique guitar solos by Piotr Grudziñski that can be found especially in Out of Myself and Second Life Syndrome. But these missing solos are substituted by other new riffs using other instruments. But my overall judgement is another masterpiece, no doubt about that, these guys represent the best of new modern metal progressive music...5 stars without a doubt!!

4 Years after their impressive "ADHD", Riverside returns with an album that tries to bridge the Prog Metal rocking energy of "ADHD" with the more melodic approach of their earlier albums. The result has been received with loud rounds of applause from most fans and I'm pretty sure this must be a safe purchase. Unfortunately for me this turned out quite a disappointment. This is a dull listen with plain and safe songwriting and that rarely goes beyond recycling old ideas.

Most of the songs are built around poppy ballad fluff, with some hard rock clichés, boring retro sound and unnecessary distorted vocal effects thrown in for good measure. There are few interesting solos or instrumental sections (at least not on the main CD) and bar a few unexciting 'rockers', all songmaterial is ballad based. RIVERSIDE do that with a certain flair but they've done this much better before. This album really leaves me hungry for something really exciting.

It takes till halfway into the 6th track until there's something that stands out from the wallpaper Prog that preceded. "Deprived" has a short prog-electronic inspired instrumental passage that shows the ease and confidence with which this band can produce some wonderful Prog. The instrumental themes of this song are further explored in the instrumental CD2 that comes with the special edition. Yes, when RIVERSIDE shake off their song conventions and go all-instrumental and trippy they show how good they still can be. Also "Escalator Shrine" is not without merits but still below the longer tracks from previous albums.

RIVERSIDE's career has never been marked by great originality or daring explorations but they always had an excellent ear for a good tune and they executed that with heart and soul. Now in this album I can't hear that. The wide gap of quality (and style) between the actual CD and the extra disk only confirms my misgivings, this band has much better in store but they've settled for the path of least resistance Conclusion: Uninspired band retreats into comfort zone. 2.5 stars, maybe 3 with the extra disk.