CONCEIVING YOU

Riverside single with only one track we are not familiar with, so I'll serve my time concerning myself with that one track.

The beginning starts with an up tempo riff that we will see carried throughout much of this song, which reminds me somewhat of the single Out of Myself, in that we see the same patterns repeated over and over again. I am not really sure of the point of the extremely long title, maybe it's some kind of inside joke, or I am not keen to the scoop on Riverside.

Overall it's a song that's ok, but seems like more could be built off it than the short piece that it is. There's really not much here, and I'm a bit dissapointed that this is a release as it contains two songs on full length albums and there isn't much else to add.

I have once mentioned my astonishment and my inclination of not having single releases available for review. But as always, when such a "progressive" remark hits the structure of this site, the same and boring comment gets back : "We have decided that singles have the rights to be reviewed and they will remain so".

So...

Anyway, this "Riverside" single won't add anything to your discography (like most of the singles available for a review though).

This one features two songs from their second official release "Second Life Syndrome ". Both "Conceiving You" and "I Turned You Down" do not belong to the best of the "Riverside" repertoire. More on the soft side of the band. So, depending on which side of their songs you prefer, I guess that you would either like them or just find them useless.

The most interesting song, in my view, is "The Piece Reflecting The Mental State Of One Of The Members Of Our Band " (what a long title for such a short song...).

It is a repetitive and strong instrumental number. Nothing brilliant, but it gives a kick to the whole and breaks the "dormant" mood of this release.

Two stars. For fans only.

Conceiving You is a single from the second album Second Life Syndrome (2005) by Polish act Riverside. In my opinion a single´s primary function is to promote the album from which it came. This purpose is fulfilled here. But other than this primary function I expect some extra material that will make the single a worthy purchase even though I have the album. The latter is questionable here even though we get two new songs.

The music that Riverside play is very symphonic in nature. The symphonic rock is spiced up with some occasional metal elements. Here on Conceiving You the metal elements are not that dominant though. The two tracks Conceiving You and I Turned You Down are both pleasant beautiful symphonic/ progressive rock songs. The last song The Piece Reflecting the Mental State of One of the Members of Our Band is just an instrumental jam that never really gets impressive.

The production is good and the musicians are very good. Mariusz Duda can never be praised enough for his strong and emotional vocal delivery.

I wouldn´t say the Conceiving You single is that exciting for anyone else but the fans, but of course if you´re a fan you´ll probably have to have this one. A 2.5 star rating is warranted. The quality is good but the actual value of the single if you already own Second Life Syndrome is pretty low.

I've been conceiving you!

One of the most recognized bands from Poland in the last years, Riverside which despite being labeled as progressive metal (a genre I do not follow) I enjoy a lot. This is the single off their "Second Life Syndrome" album, called "Conceiving You" which was released parallel to the studio album back in 2005.

From that studio album they took of course Conceiving You and track six called "I Turned You Down", a couple of short but interesting tracks, both are nice pieces which I like. The first has good piano and guitars along with those great vocals; while the second comprises a great bass sound along with a very good use of the other instruments.

The new track here has a long title, "The Piece Reflecting the Mental State of One of the Members of Our Band" a curious title of course. This is a three-minute instrumental passage, like a jamming, with fast guitars and drums, cool keyboards as background, but nothing really special.

Just a decent twelve-minute single, recommended for Riverside fans.

Three-songs EP isn't very attractive purchase after Second Life Syndrome was released: two melancholic songs came from album, and only new composition there on this EP is guitar-driven energetic but too raw and unfinished instrumental.

Riverside is one of great heavy prog (or soft metal) modern band for me, but not because of such mid tempo nostalgic compositions, as two first EP songs. Vocals are great, musicianship is very competent as well, but Riverside really can play better music.

If you have Second Life Syndrome album yet I can't imagine any reason you could be interested in this EP. Obviously release for collectors only.