Founded in 2001, Riverside’s career arc has been quietly spectacular, the band incorporating a range of influences into a sound that has remained defiantly their own. Between 2003 and 2015, the band released six albums, each one building upon the strengths of its predecessor, and their career peak, 2015’s Love, fear and time machine, saw the band charting around the world. It was to be a high point shrouded in tragedy, however, and less than six months after its release, founding member Piotr Grudzinski passed away, the victim of a sudden cardiac arrest. The band, devastated by the loss, promptly cancelled their remaining tour dates and, after a period of mourning, elected to continue as a trio (with Quidam’s Maciej Meller joining as a touring member only).
2016’s compilaiton, Eye of the soundscape, notwithstanding, it has been a long wait for Riverside fans. Understandably, Wasteland finds the band inhabiting a darker world. Informed, not only by the band’s own experiences but also by main-man Mariusz Duda’s interest in post-apocalyptic literature, films and video games; wasteland sees the band indulging their cinematic soundscapes in new ways, evoking a world that has been stripped bare by the hand of man. Amidst the desolation, however, there is great beauty to be found and Wasteland is a remarkable triumph in the wake of such terrible personal loss.
The album opens with shades of Genesis as Mariusz’s frayed, folky vocal is allowed to ring out unadorned, a warm bass slowly rising from the earth before Mariusz is obscured in reverb and static. A short piece, The day after is an atmospheric introduction to the album before a harsh riff announces the arrival of Acid Rain – a two-part, prog-metal beast that moves deftly through a number of musical motifs over the course of its six-minute runtime. With Michal Lapaj’s keyboards given considerable prominence in the mix, the sound is lush and dense, drawing on touchstones that range from WYWH-era Pink Floyd and John Carpenter to Queensryche and Dream Theater. Always, however, there’s a carefully plotted purpose to the music and technicality never bars the progress of the song, a facet of Mariusz Duda’s songwriting that stands as one of Riverside’s greatest strengths. An album highlight, and the first single, vale of tears is nothing short of a masterpiece. Imbued with a tough metallic edge, but allowed the freedom of prog and the catchiness of pop, vale of tears condenses Riverside’s considerable musical prowess into five glorious minutes. A softer track, Guardian Angel pairs a rich acoustic guitar with the warmth of Michal’s piano for a piece of music that drifts dreamily through the listener’s consciousness, Mariusz channelling Peter Gabriel as echoing lead guitar work streaks across the surface of the piece like a shooting star. It is a gorgeous piece of song-writing and it serves as a powerful contrast to the heavier material found elsewhere. The first half of the album concludes with Lament, a song that combines the narrative power of folk with ethereal soundscapes of latter-day Anathema and crunchy guitars to mesmerising effect. Its six minutes pass in the blink of an eye, with the listener lost in its great beauty and occasional bursts of menace.
Kicking off side two, The struggle for survival is not only the album’s longest song (at just over nine-minutes in length), it’s also an instrumental. Emerging from a tension-building guitar and warm stabs of synth that pitch it between Steven Wilson and the soundtrack to A clockwork orange, the struggle for survival sees nimble bass-lines and atmospheric guitar work coalesce over the course of two-and-a-half -minutes before the song finally takes flight. Angular and inventive, it’s a gloriously over-wrought monster of a track and one that perfectly suits the themes of the album. In contrast, the Opeth-meets-Genesis progressive piece, River down below, is stripped to the bone, allowing plenty of room for Mariusz’s vocals to breathe as guitars shimmer gently in the background before, finally, a Gilmour-esque solo brings the song to a glorious close. Another lengthy piece, Wasteland opens as an acoustic folk piece before exploding into life, Mariusz’s guitar cruelly distorted as he pits it against Michal’s vivid piano work. It leaves only The night before to bring the album to an elegant, piano-led close. Rather more of a coda than a separate track it is a moment of sparsely-arranged beauty that leaves you feeling both bereft and yet, strangely comforted, as the final notes quietly close the door on the record.
Given the blazing guitars of vale of tears, fans would be forgiven for thinking that wasteland would find Riverside in unforgiving form, but the album taken as a whole is a much more subtle, organic affair. The musical performances, as we’ve come to expect, are exemplary, but it’s more than that – there’s such warmth and humanity in the compositions that they work their way under the skin, haunting and soothing in equal measure. Riverside have yet to disappoint, but even by their own impressive standards, wasteland is a remarkable body of work, drawing deftly on the past and yet always striving toward the future. An utterly compelling album from start to finish, wasteland is simply perfect. 10
Special edition notes
Generally I like Inside out’s attention to detail when it comes to special edition packages, but this one, it has to be said, is rather more style than substance. Priced at roughly four pounds more than the standard edition, it features the typically excellent digi-book packaging (which showcases Travis Smith’s elegant artwork nicely) as well as a handful of stickers. However, where the package falls down is in the bonus track department. A single extra song (and an edit of album track River down below at that) is all that’s offered to fans, which stands in stark contrast to the live DVD that graced the ADHD package. For fans, the special edition will undoubtedly remain tempting, but it is somewhat disappointing compared to the additional materials more typically associated with a limited release.
