Riverside
Wasteland

THE REVIEW

The first work without guitarist Piotr Grudziński, who suddenly passed away due to heart failure on February 21, 2016, with the band continuing as a trio with Mariusz Duda taking over guitar duties. The band announced a sound closer to their origins and that the album would definitely have darker tones. Thus, "Wasteland," the seventh studio work for the Polish band (not counting "Eye of the Soundscape" which, in the end, is an album in its own right but mainly composed of previously released material), was released on September 28, 2018, and was highly anticipated, probably due to the curiosity among fans about how the band would react to the sudden disappearance.

In the end, we can say that the reaction obtained was the expected one: a definitely dark record. I would avoid talking about a return to the origins, let's not exaggerate; we are not faced with the rarefied metal-styled guitar riffs or the solid solos, nor the keyboard soundscapes with an obsessive ambient flavor that characterized the first three albums; on the other hand, I really don't believe that with "return to the origins" Riverside intended to create copies of those albums. However, it's not even the very softened sound of the previous "Love, Fear and the Time Machine." The guitars sound scratchy and rough at times, with an almost alternative touch that never quite touches metal; metal that the band seems to have definitively set aside after having overused the genre in that "Anno Domini High Definition" in 2009, which for the first time divided fans with its alternative, frenetic, and electronic prog-metal approach (I wonder if the Haken in their latest "Vector" thought about that jewel during the writing phase, considering the approach seems more or less that one...); I've heard someone say that the band doesn't seem to be very comfortable when playing metal; I consider that record a conversation begun but interrupted at its start and which deserved to be further explored. But the keyboard work also appears edgy, especially in the synth inserts, and even a bit in the organ ones. The sound is therefore full-bodied and slightly sharp but never metal. As for a dark album, this can certainly be discussed, indeed, this time it seems that the band has really emphasized the dark imprint; acoustic and electric arpeggios and strums with a deliberately muted sound and Mariusz Duda often inclined to sing in really low registers even if not exactly whispered; they often seem like the more gothic Anathema of the late '90s.

In short, an album that is a product of the situation that had arisen; the darkest and most dramatic Riverside ever, faithful to certain characteristics but never a photocopy of themselves, ready to redefine themselves without revolutionizing. Indeed, the impression that they could dare more is always there, indeed the only two occasions when they weren't really afraid to do so were essentially "Anno Domini High Definition," which as I said could have really inaugurated a new phase, and "Eye of the Soundscape" with its electronic and daring ambient, but at least they don't offer the same stuff for years and always try to give an identity to each new work.