Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Riverside
Label: Inside Out Records
Release date: 28.09.2018
Running time: 50:58
Rating: 4/5
Riverside, Poland’s prog rock champions, have been through an incredibly eventful stretch over the last three years, and for a long time it wasn’t clear whether they’d carry on at all. Now they’re back with a new album, »Wasteland«. With its »Paradise Lost-esque« cover, it’s also the first record without the late original guitarist Piotr Grudzinski, so it brings a heap of questions and doubts. What should we expect, 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 status as one of the finest prog rock bands of the new era, combining ceaseless musical appeal, gripping theatrical atmosphere and a welcome dose of technical complexity. In that sense they count as one of the more accessible bands in the genre, one that can easily win over the average Pink Floyd fan, who starts digging into their music and maybe other corners of prog rock along with it. If you’re a big fan of Pink Floyd as well as Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Anathema, Gazpacho or the greatness of Marillion, you’ll feel right at home in Riverside’s music in no time. »Wasteland« keeps and sustains all of that, and it’s not as markedly “Floydian” as its predecessor “Love Fear And TIme Machine” (2015). With “Wasteland” Riverside held on to all their musical excellence and credibility, passing an important test of “artistic endurance” with flying colors. Without a key man in the lineup, no less. Inspired, soulful and brimming with artistic expression.
»Wasteland« is, no beating around the bush, an excellent album. Exactly what you’d expect from the band. The guitars were arranged by the band’s main engine and visionary Mariusz Duda, who normally handles lead vocals and bass, but this time played all the guitar parts himself, sampled extra guitar embellishments and added two guitar solos on top. »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 very definition of great sensitivity, of striking atmospheric contrasts and sudden shifts of mood. This is the band where melancholy got its citizenship a long time ago. The very definition of high “art aesthetics”. You’d be hard pressed to pack more anguish and sorrow into a rock ‘n’ roll confession than Mariusz manages with his voice and the sensitive way he delivers his lines. »Wasteland« is a new album full of outstanding magnification of emotion and passion. Riverside often use their poetry for a general sermon on human delusions too. This time they’re perhaps more than ever focused on the general devastation of the planet by an insatiable virus called humanity. The apocalyptic album title and the cover itself tell you the gist right from the start. ”(Post)apocalypse now!”
Mariusz Duda and the other two members are experienced, refined composers. This time Duda set the electronics levers aside, and you can enjoy them in his solo project Lunatic Soul. Still, »Wasteland« is masterfully dressed up with some loops and sampling, while being structured with incredible contrast. What really works on it is the contrast between confessional fragility and gentleness (acoustic arrangements step forward here too) and sudden turns into harsher, distorted phrasing, which still doesn’t take the artistic lead on the album by a long shot.
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 and distinctive voice of Riverside’s sound and style. In terms of how the refined arrangements work, 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 that intensifies step by step, circle after circle, into a full atmospheric crescendo. The escalating drama and sudden leaps of mood are once again the album’s biggest musical draw and truly the band’s winning poker aces. That’s what the band’s own distinctive musical dossier is built on.
Most of the guitar solos come from guest Maciej Meller, who otherwise helps Riverside out as a guitarist on concert tours. On one of the album’s most guitar-packed tracks in terms of phrasing, Vale of Tears, the solo is played by Mateusz Owczarek. Both musicians did their jobs with the desired finesse, which gives the character mosaic of Riverside’s music a credible walk down the road paved by the past albums, the “Grudzinski-era” ones.
On the new album Riverside don’t deliver a noticeable evolutionary leap. But the new record is, from head to toe, exactly the kind of album only Riverside can put together. And without Piotr Grudzinski, at that. It’s an album with which the band steps into a new era of its work and leaves the past behind. It would be interesting, admittedly, to hear how Piotr’s guitar would have fit into the new arrangements and what it would have added. But even without Piotr, and this is what matters in the situation, Riverside keep all their artistic identity and recognizability up in a seriously convincing way. Given the circumstances, that’s the bare minimum for a band that saved its skin after opening a new chapter in its career. The next album will surely have to take on a bigger artistic challenge and bring a bit more sonic and stylistic experimentation again! Until then, let’s enjoy the excellent »Wasteland«. It’s an emotionally supercharged and, musically speaking, very skillfully optimized album that really “grabs” you as you listen, thanks to its intense switches of highly vibrant mood!
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’
Production
Mariusz Duda, Magda & Robert Srzedniccy
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)
