RIVERSIDE - Shrine Of The New Generation Slaves (2013)

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I have a soft spot for Polish Prog wonders RIVERSIDE, one of the most interesting acts in the genre from the new generation.
After four albums and a great EP last year, they have managed to reach a next splendid height in terms of dynamic songwriting with their newest, highly anticipated fifth studio album release “Shrine Of New Generation Slaves”.

“Shrine Of New Generation Slaves” (or “S.O.N.G.S.” for easier referencing) offers more than 50 minutes of high-class music which don’t just clearly reflect a further developed, modern take on the band’s charismatic trademark elements, but also effectively adds vibes of the Classic Rock segment as well as art-rock bits to the ever-challenging mix that Riverside has always stood for.
Maybe just less standard metallic and also less complex - without meaning less progressive - they surprise us with something fresh, a more mature chapter in the band's career and focused again more on melody and organic rock groove than before.
The CD title might sound a bit intricate, but the acronym definitely explain what they did here: SONGS.

Conceptually, it is an album as intense and introspective as ever before but there is also a strong and very obscure social component to things this time around, with lyrics talking about the 'new generation slavery', where people seem to be unable to take control over their own lives.
Musically, while many of Riverside's trademark style is here – progressive music with a heavy bass presence and a vocalist who has more in common with hard rockers than most of the prog scene – SONGS is instead a way more chill progressive rock album in the veins of Marillion or Steven Wilson‘s stuff.
One of the things that had impressed me in the band’s earlier material was the delicacy and the melodies of the calmer material, and the merge of the first two tracks here, from "New Generation Slave" to "The Depth of Self-Delusion" shows off the band’s melodic chops with the deft use of counter melody and melancholy.

This more delicate side of the band is what is on display throughout the whole album, peaking on the 8 minute second track and rolling downhill all the way to the last "Coda". Older fans will be happy to hear that the organs and keyboards are back throughout the record.
"We Got Used to Us" is a piano driven ballad – even if it does have an excellent bassline that pushes the music forward, while in the charming "Deprived (Irretrievably Lost Imagination)" is where vocalist Mariusz Duda shines with an emotional performance. He handles this kind of sweet material with a fantastic touch.
One of the finest moments on the CD is the album's major epic "Escalator Shrine", a real treat of classic Prog driven by a fantastic guitar riff / Hammond B3 keyboard arrangement.

Riverside did it again. They managed to record another interesting album without repeating themselves, completely different in style to its predecessor.
This is a band who can write '70s influenced Prog, while still maintaining cohesive and interesting songs that are fun to listen to and simultaneously intellectually stimulating.
"Shrine Of New Generation Slaves" shows that Riverside hasn't lost a step talentwise while wandering into their fifth album, even if they have dialed back the heaviness a bit.
Recommended.


01 - New Generation Slave
02 - The Depth Of Self-Delusion
03 - Celebrity Touch
04 - We Got Used To Us
05 - Feel Like Falling
06 - Deprived (Irretrievably Lost Imagination)
07 - Escalator Shrine
08 - Coda

Mariusz Duda - vocals, bass
Piotr Grudzinski - guitars
Michal Lapaj - keyboards
Piotr Kozieradzki - drums



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www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00AAVMIEA

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RIVERSIDE - Memories In My Head [EP] (2011)

"What a great debut" said hundreds of people around the world in 2003, when the first Riverside record came out.
This progressive rock band from Warsaw, Poland was founded in 2001 by friends Mariusz Duda, Piotr Grudziński, Piotr Kozieradzki and Jacek Melnicki, who shared a love for classic progg acts.
Since then, they have released a series of both critical and public acclaimed albums that can be described as a stylistic blend of atmospheric rock and neo-prog elements, resulting in a sound similar to Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree and the very first Marillion.
On the last album, the band's sound has morphed into a more commercial prog-metal style.

For their 10th birthday the band have prepared a special release which will be available during the forthcoming tour.
The EP entitled "Memories In My Head" will be a pleasant surprise for those who have missed the specific kind of melodies and space known from the band's early releases. Riverside consciously gone back to their beginnings to create a certain kind of a circle.

This mini-album contains three long compositions resembling those from their first two albums.
The result is a quite interesting, spacious, film-soundtrackish, nostalgic, and most of all rock mixture, summing up the band career's first decade quite well.
Riverside makes dynamic and alternating progressive rock with one key element: Emotion.
From mellow and melancholical climates (wonderful vocals) to the compelling Gilmourian-drenched prog rock atmospheres, each track is so diversified and has so many tempo and mood changes and technical highlights, that this seems a full length album than an EP.

The colouring of the compositions with the keyboards is amazing, so tasteful and varied, from tender piano and soaring strings to sumptuous organ floods and some spectacular synthesizer sounds.
Vocals are more Porcupine Tree's Steve Wilson-esque than anyone else, are dreamlike and impossible not to appreciate. Mariusz Duda even dips into the Hogarth (Marillion) vocal style, without the gimmicks.
The bass is very deep, played and mixed pretty separated with a distinctive sound (a real Bass-Guitar), and drums are elaborated and complex, especially the cymbals patterns. Both instruments are essential part of the band's sound.


Pink Floyd was probably the most evident influence of Riverside, since the whole EP have that space rock feeling, that gloomy and quiet desperation that Floyd translated so well in their music, with moody / spacy keyboards and guitar melodies filled with emotion and feeling.
Riverside offer pristine art of the very highest caliber here, a must have for every serious progg fan out there.
The concerts at which it will be possible to buy this minialbum and hear the new songs live will begin on 5th of May in Prague (CZ) and finish on 29th of May in Warsaw (PL).


1. Goodbye Sweet Innocence 10:40
2. Living In The Past 11:59
3. Forgotten Land 09:57


Mariusz Duda - vocal, bass, acoustic guitar
Piotr Grudzinski - guitars
Piotr Kozieradzki - drums
Michal Lapaj - keyboards, hammond organs, theremin



www.riversideband.pl

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