Album review: RIVERSIDE – Shrine Of New Generation Slaves

The fifth album from the classy Polish prog rockers and it sees them returning to their best.

The album has many musical delights and as you would expect the musicianship is of a high standard. There is a touch of Muse about ‘Feel Like Falling’, the song with the biggest instant appeal but then a band like Riverside is never about quick musical fixes, rather they infuse their musical delights to the listener with each subsequent play. ‘Deprived’ again has Mariusz Duda excelling vocally and features some drift away sax in the middle of the song. The song brings to mind classic 70’s prog bands like Pink Floyd, both in atmosphere and the spacey synths and the more modern refrains of Opeth.

‘Escalator Shrine’ has it all within its twelve plus minutes, featuring complex musical arrangements, wistful vocals and a little metal edge to the guitar playing. Riverside have added a bit more metal to their musical canon on this album as the title track and ‘The Depth Of Self-Delusion’ successfully mix progressive metal with the band’s more restrained prog rock.

Mariusz Duda shines on the moving vocals on ‘We Got Used To Us’, a lovely gentle refrain that is like the Porcupine Tree classic ‘Lazarus’. The listener gets swept away in the vocals and music, stirring stuff. The short acoustic ‘Coda’ rounds off a stunning listen.

A real return to form by the band and as well as delighting their fans I am sure they will attract a whole new audience. One of the year’s first ‘must have’ albums.

****1/2

Jason Ritchie

Interview with Mariusz Duda

Gig review [16.03.13]

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)