Riverside
Wasteland

Riverside has to be the best thing to come out of Poland, at least the best I can think of. And now they are releasing a new album called Wasteland, perhaps a fitting name considering the musical wasteland that we sometimes see these days. And these guys actually did contribute to this wasteland with their latest effort that I found to be extremely boring but according to the very long text in the press information they are making a new chapter now. One of the guys claims it is the same feel as when they released their debut and main writer and singer Duda says many things and one of those is about how this album is a synthesis of all the stuff they have done before and how this is more emotional and so on.

I think that those of you who know Riverside from before will recognise their style, it is progressive rock music for those of you who do not know them from before. Fairly dark and atmospheric, quite heavy and emotional I think are things that can be said about what we get to hear on this album. The vocals are good and the production is really strong and while the album might not be the most varied it has lots of depth that makes the 51 minutes long playing time feel a bit shorter than it is. And, as far as I can tell it is the most complete album that the band has put together this far.

This is a good album with good songs and decent imagination, a real step forward in comparison with the previous album. It is also quite creative and a good change from the typical musical wasteland that falls into my mailboxes, I don’t really think this album has any particular weaknesses. Though I do think they could have used more pace in some of the songs, and perhaps added a bit more dynamics to the album but that is just a minor thing. And I think that the third track Vale of Tears is the best one of the album, I also think that the title track is worth mentioning. But I think that all the tracks are of a high quality and the album is certainly well worth playing several times over.

Wasteland is probably the magnum opus for Riverside, an impressive album with strong songs and good emotions. So we can once again claim that Riverside are creators of impressive albums, the predecessor seems to be a slight mishap and perhaps not representative for the band’s normal capacity. This time they make a stronger album and this one is certainly well worth checking out.

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