label InsideOut Records
release date: 28.09.2018
length: 50:58
production: Mariusz Duda, Magda & Robert Srzedniccy
rating: 8.5 / 10
Riverside, Poland’s progressive rock champions, have been through an incredibly eventful few years, and for a long while it wasn’t clear whether they’d carry on with their career at all. Now they’re back with a new album, “Wasteland”. With its Paradise Lost-style cover, it’s also the first album without their late, original guitarist Piotr Grudzinski, so it brings a pile of questions and doubts. What can we expect from it, and can Riverside even pull it off with new material written and recorded without Piotr’s sorely missed genius? Over the years Riverside have earned their place as one of the finest progressive rock bands of the new era, brilliantly combining constant musical appeal, gripping theatrical atmosphere and a welcome dose of technical complexity. In that respect they count as one of the easier bands in the genre to get into, one that can quickly win over your average Pink Floyd fan and get them digging into their music, and maybe into other corners of prog rock along with it. If you’re also pretty friendly with Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Anathema, Gazpacho or the likes of Marillion, besides the aforementioned Pink Floyd, you’ll feel right at home in Riverside’s music in no time. “Wasteland” holds on to everything said above, and it’s not as markedly “Floydian” an album as its predecessor “Love Fear And TIme Machine” (2015). With “Wasteland”, Riverside have kept all of their musical brilliance and credibility, passing the big “artistic endurance” test with flying colors. Without the key man in the lineup, no less. Inspired, sensual and bursting with artistic expression.
“Wasteland” is, no beating around the bush, an excellent album. Exactly what you’d expect from the band. The guitar arrangements were handled by the band’s driving force and visionary Mariusz Duda, who normally takes care of lead vocals and bass, but this time also played all the guitar parts, sampled extra guitar embellishments and delivered two guitar solos on top of that. “Wasteland” isn’t as challenging as, say, “Anno Domini High Definition”, but it keeps every essential element that made Riverside’s music so beloved and recognizable.
Riverside are the definition of great sensitivity, of creating shocking atmospheric contrasts and sudden mood swings. They’re the band where melancholy got its citizenship a long time ago. The definition of grand “art aesthetics”. You’d be hard pressed to pack more anguish and sorrow into a rock ‘n’ roll confession than Mariusz’s vocals and sensitive delivery of the verses manage to produce. “Wasteland” is a new album full of extraordinary magnification of emotion and passion. Riverside often use their poetry for a general sermon on human folly, too. This time they focus, perhaps more than ever before, on the overall devastation of the planet at the hands of an insatiable virus called humanity. The apocalyptic album title and the cover itself tell you as much right from the start. “(Post)apocalypse now!”
Mariusz Duda and the other two members are experienced, refined composers. This time Duda put the electronics levers aside, and you can enjoy them in his solo project Lunatic Soul. Still, “Wasteland” is masterfully equipped with a few loops and some sampling, while being structured with incredible contrast. What really works on it is the contrast between confessional fragility and gentleness (the acoustic arrangements step into the spotlight here too) and sudden turns toward harder, distorted phrasing, which still by no means steals the artistic spotlight on the album.
The chemistry between Duda and keyboardist Michał Łapaj remains witty and inspired. Alongside Mariusz Duda’s vocal exposé, he supplies the essential artistic mass behind the overall recognizability, the confessional individuality of Riverside’s sound and style. In terms of the effect of those refined arrangements. Take the moments when guitar and keyboards enter into a dialogue, or the spots where the keyboards very skillfully color and deepen Mariusz Duda’s vocal sensitivity. Riverside have once again put two excellent instrumentals on the album, which are also its longest tracks (the title track and The Struggle for Survival). In them you can hear the band’s innate feel for building a cataclysmic mood, which intensifies step by step, circle after circle, into a full atmospheric crescendo. The escalating drama and the sudden leaps in mood are once again the album’s biggest musical draw and truly the band’s winning poker hand of aces. That’s what their polished, one-of-a-kind musical dossier is built on.
Most of the guitar solos come from guest Maciej Meller, who otherwise helps Riverside out as a guitarist on tour. On Vale of Tears, one of the album’s sharper tracks as far as guitar phrasing goes, the solo is played by Mateusz Owczarek. Both musicians did their jobs with the welcome qualities that ensure the character mosaic of Riverside’s music keeps credibly walking the path paved by the previous, so-called “Grudzinski-era”, albums.
On the new album Riverside don’t deliver a noticeable evolutionary step. But it’s an album that, from head to toe, is exactly the kind of album only Riverside can put together. And without Piotr Grudzinski, at that. It’s an album with which the band enters a new era of its creative life and leaves the past behind. It would be interesting to hear how Piotr’s guitar would have fit into the new arrangements and what it would have added. But even without Piotr, and that’s what matters in this situation, Riverside keep all of their artistic individuality and recognizability, and do it very convincingly. Given the circumstances, that’s the bare minimum for a band that got out with its skin intact after opening a new chapter in its career. The next album will surely have to take on a bigger artistic challenge and bring back a bit more sonic and stylistic experimentation! Until then, let’s enjoy the excellent “Wasteland”. It’s emotionally supercharged and, musically speaking, very cleverly optimized, an album that really “grabs” you as you listen, thanks to its intense switches of highly vibrant mood!
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
tracklist:
1. The Day After (01:48)
2. Acid Rain (06:03)
– part I. Where Are We Now?
– part II. Dancing Ghosts
3. Vale Of Tears (04:49)
4. Guardian Angel (04:24)
5. Lament (06:09)
6. The Struggle For Survival (09:32)
– part I. Dystopia
– part II. Battle Royale
7. River Down Below (05:41)
8. Wasteland (08:25)
9. The Night Before (03:59)
lineup:
Mariusz Duda – vocals, guitar, bass, guitar solos on ‘Lament’ and ‘Wasteland’
Michał Łapaj – keyboards, theremin on ‘Wasteland’
Piotr Kozieradzki – drums
guest musicians:
Maciej Meller – guitar solos on ‘Acid Rain – Part II. Dancing Ghosts’, ‘Guardian Angel’, ‘The Struggle For Survival – Part II. Battle Royale’ and ‘River Down Below’
Michał Jelonek – violin on ‘The Day After’, ‘Lament’, ‘Wasteland’ and ‘The Struggle For Survival – Part II. Battle Royale’
Mateusz Owczarek – guitar solo on ‘Vale Of Tears’
