Riverside
ID.Entity

They had said they would return to something harder after years of very delicate sounds, but one wondered how, in what sense. Did they perhaps only want to resume that metal component that alternately characterized the initial trilogy? Or did they want to make a prog-metal alternative and bold album in the style of their fourth work? Well, I would have liked that second hypothesis, that discussion wasn't continued as it should have been, but it's usually more honorable to look forward rather than backward… and indeed they have looked forward. The fear of a simple nostalgia operation was there but it dissolved immediately with the release of the first singles.

This time Riverside takes a courageous path, which may appear challenging but turns out to be fluid and captivating instead; "ID.Entity" offers a more or less strange "alternative hard prog," a definition I created and assigned on the spot but it fits perfectly, let's see gradually what it means.

So no return to metal (if they ever really were), the sound takes a decidedly hard rock turn instead. A bit of Purple, a bit of Sabbath, the new guitarist Maciej Meller unveils gritty guitars, undoubtedly a nice calling card, while keyboardist Michal Lapaj focuses heavily on a substantial Hammond organ, never so massive before, the result is truly the perfect seventies-inspired hard rock concentrate, guitar and organ supporting each other and creating a robust and massive sound. It's not exactly a novelty; already ten years ago in the album "Shrine of New Generation Slaves," there were some nice hard rock episodes, but here they have explored the matter thoroughly. However, this time they didn't want it to become an overly blatant tribute or a mere exercise in style, so they deliberately taint everything with rusty sounds, scratchy guitars and basses, and slightly claustrophobic riffs that even hark back to Tool; at times, we really feel like we're hearing a sort of less pronounced and less metal Tool, diluted with the organ, needless to say, the result is astonishing, the mix is bold and original as openly demonstrated by tracks like "Post-Truth" and especially "I’m Done With You."

The prog imprint is not in question anyway, with tracks that unfold beyond the song format and do not lack moderate instrumental deviations. It deserves to be mentioned also the bass work of Mariusz Duda; I have always appreciated his particular pick playing, always very well functional and fitting in the atmospheric mood of Riverside, but here he has adopted a more obsessive and metallic style that fits well with the hard rock charge of the compositions; the fury with which he hammers the strings and drives the track in "Landmine Blast" is incredible; perhaps the best bass parts of the entire discography?

However, the compositional originality does not manifest only in that particular mix of classic hard rock sounds and alternative cues, there are here and there other nice unusual things that inevitably capture the listener's attention. Starting already from the opening track "Friend or Foe?", where the band in full disregard of potential criticism throws themselves into 80s synth-pop, sounds that no one would have ever expected from Riverside, and they do it practically in the most traditional way; it really seems like a track made in that era, it could easily be attributed to the likes of Alphaville, A-ha, or Ultravox, a sensational sound revisitation but Riverside still tries to update it by putting in the track everything that can serve that purpose, from hard rock inserts to bass stabs. Quite unexpected is also what happens in "Self-Aware," where the usual hard rock fury is interrupted by abrupt reggae breaks, transitioning from Deep Purple to The Police in a heartbeat, more or less something similar to what happened in "The Spirit of Radio" by Rush but with a harder sound, while in the long tail the vaguely exotic and tropical rhythms merge with a nocturnal electronic and an almost detective movie atmosphere. Totally unimaginable is also what happens in "Big Tech Brother," the long brass-themed introductory part takes them to Caribbean territories that have nothing to do with their native Poland, it is practically a salsa in odd times; it's a shame that the beauty ends there, the rest of the track is decidedly less interesting and does not express the maximum potential.

The most classic and traditional track is instead "The Place Where I Belong," a long 13-minute composition that focuses on the more melodic and more prog side of Riverside (mention for the well three organ solos), probably the most appreciated side; it does not draw so much from the early Riverside with heavy atmospheres but draws more from those ultra-delicate for example of "Love, Fear and the Time Machine" or several tracks from "Shrine of New Generation Slaves," it is the track that satisfies everyone a bit, works well but obviously is not what arouses more curiosity.

The deluxe edition has bonus tracks, two are simple single edits of "Friend or Foe?" and "Self-Aware," but there are also two unreleased instrumental tracks; honestly I must say they don't thrill me too much, they seem a bit incomplete and seem more like they were written to please the old guard, probably succeeding.

Personally, I consider "ID.Entity" one of the two boldest works in Riverside's discography, the other being "Anno Domini High Definition" (there would also be "Eye of the Soundscape" but it is fundamentally a collection of unreleased tracks); the works of the past decade, although different from those of the first phase, did not have much of that courage of total rupture and radical change, they were always more or less trapped in their package of delicate and melancholic melodies, the change happened halfway. Now, however, they have had the courage to take the daring step and they have done it with great style. A great start for the 2023 prog.