SECOND LIFE SYNDROME

I must say I was incredibly hyped to check this album. When I recently discovered this site, I noticed there was many prog sub- genres with their own rankings, so I instantly went to the progressive metal section. It made me happy to see that the top two are Dream Theater albums! But what caught my attention the most was the third place. It was an album I had never heard of before made by a band I had never heard of before. I pretty much instantly proposed myself to listening it, after all, it was rated almost as high as Metropolis Pt. II and Images & Words. That's quite the statement.

Second Life Syndrome is Riverside's second album, which is impressive since it usually takes bands a couple of albums before they start showing their claws. It was released some time after their apparently very-respect debut 'Out Of Myself' which I will probably listen to very soon. Bands from Poland aren't very common not only in prog, but in music in general. So it's good to see some bands from there are getting recognition!

So, was it masterpiece? Unfortunately, I can't say it was one. But it was still a very good album! This album sounds like a mixture between Dream Theater, Opeth (There's short growl sections here and there) and Porcupine Tree. Those are very good bands to get your trademark sound from. And while I can say that the mixture does work, and has some outstanding moments, it's not spectacular. I actually really wish most tracks (specially the ones exceeding the eight minute mark) were a little more dynamic. By that I mean that I wish they had a more elaborate structure, like including build-ups or instrumental sections that aren't just a melancholic guitar solo.

Despite those tracks mentioned before being a little too iteration-based, they still have amazing and soulful melodies behind them, and instrumentation is flawless all-along the album. I must say that if you like Porcupine Tree or Dream Theater, you will probably really like this album, so you should give it a try of course. I can understand why it has such a high rating, but it really didn't make me jump from my seat to be honest.

Three Stars. Definitely good, but I wouldn't call it essential.

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