It has been very quiet in the Polish progressive rock circuit, but be prepared for the new sensation, called Riverside. This ‘Out of Myself’ will be a big surprise in many musical environments, a cd that will let you dream away in a world, balancing between a grey, lonely existence and a colourful future, filled with emotions and carried away with thrilling songs, played by four excellent musicians. You get the feeling having heard this music already in the past, naturally it’s full of references, but the compositions are so tight, really impressive for a debut album. And I’ve said it before, it becomes a trend to make a transition from playing death metal or metal to atmospheric art rock. But, it was never performed in such an original way as the group Riverside.

The intro of ‘The same river’ sets your teeth on edge, an intriguing voice, the swelling music, a Floydian guitar passing to aggressive progmetal and later on in typical neoprog style. The melancholy is really everywhere, mainly by the intense voice of Mariusz Duda. This is one of the nicest compositions, that I’ve heard this year.

Some tracks are more in the vein of progressive metal, like the short but heavy Out of Myself. And apparently the guys much appreciate sound effects, because most of the songs have some weird introduction. After the beautiful, sad acoustic ‘I Believe’ all stops are pulled out with whirling synthesizers and a pumping bass guitar in the first part of Reality Dream.

Don’t listen to this cd when you are in a depressive mood, because you will not get any happier after hearing it. ‘Loose heart’ is completely drown in a mood of dark melancholy, as you can hear very often on Opeth’s ‘Damnation’ : beautiful mellotron varied with ‘Gilmouresque’ guitar solos. And you even can hear the metal-roots of the guys in a very short but not disturbing grunt voice.

To keep this review relatively short, I will let you discover all the other tracks, anyway it has no sense, because each track is so diversified and has so many tempo and mood changes and technical highlights. The entire cd keeps constantly that high level, the dark side of Anathema, Opeth and Green Carnation, the song structures of Porcupine Tree and the symphonic fragments of Pink Floyd or Marillion.

Travis Smith being chosen to make the artwork is not really a coincidence, as the man has already made a lot of nice covers for bands like Opeth, Anathema, Dead Soul Tribe and other Psychotic Waltz.

2004 has proven to be a fantastic year for progressive rock and metal, but I’m sure that ‘Out of Myself’ will never disappear from my Top 3. And I have not the slightest idea, how they can equal or even improve this performance. You should be in the store already!!