RIVERSIDE
Polish prog metal veterans swap weighty existential introspection to for prog-adjacent 80s synthpop on jubilant eighth album.
Words: Phil Weller
Edited by Dave Everley prog.reviews@futurenet.com
Illustration: Russell Cuffe
When Riverside released their seventh album, Wasteland, in 2018, they did so under a veil of mourning. The Polish band’s first proper release since guitarist and founding member Piotr Grudziński died two years earlier, Wasteland was their darkest album to that point. Its central concept of survivors trying to stay alive in a wrecked, desolate post-apocalyptic world was a thinly veiled allegory for the band’s own loss. The sense of hollowness that shrouded Wasteland reflected a band still wrestling with bereavement as they embarked on a journey towards healing.