Polish band Riverside
(guitarist Piotr Grudzinski, vocalist and bassist Mariusz Duda,
drummer Piotr “Mittloff” Kozieradzki, keyboardist Jacek Mielnicki)
reenergized prog-rock with their early albums, starting with
Out of Myself (2003).
Pink Floyd-esque keyboards and guitars, as well as moderate doses of Joe Satriani-esque pop-metal , enhance the languid, atmospheric, jazzy soundscape of the twelve-minute The Same River.
Pink Floyd's Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun mutates into the power-ballad Out of Myself.
The other side of the coin is represented by the alternatively
smooth and virulent jazz-rock of Reality Dream and Reality Dream II.
The eight-minute The Curtain Falls veers into dreamy new-age territory with moronic guitar solo and even more moronic elegiac singing.
There is also an incursion in introverted bedroom folksinging, the acoustic ballad I Believe.
The EP Voices in My Head (2005) tested a more electronic approach.
Second Life Syndrome (Mystic Production, 2005), featuring new keyboardist Michal Lapaj,
boasts a denser sound but fundamentally continues in the same vein of the first album: emotional and lyrical prog-rock with moments of metal fury and atmospheric guitar solos.
The nine-minute Volte-Face is a rather confused suite, whose highlight is the piano intermezzo. The harder parts sound like a
poor man's Dream Theater.
Conceiving You is a shameless pop ballad, and
I Turned You Down is a barely more effective lament.
The promising instrumental overture of the
16-minute Second Life Syndrome is spoiled by a trite sung hard-rocking section, reignited by an
Iron Butterfly-esque keyboard crescendo five minutes into the song and topped by the
surreal break of the 11th minute.
These moments of creativity are glued together by rather bland sections.
The forceful instrumental
Reality Dream III is a worthy additions to the first two parts.
The eleven-minute Dance With The Shadow, possibly the standout, drops the listener into an oneiric and philosophical ambience with Indian-esque overtones.
Rapid Eye Movement (2007) closed the "Reality Dream" trilogy and
boasted
the eight-minute Beyond the Eyelids,
the 13-minute Ultimate Trip
and the eight-minute Parasomnia.
Reality Dream (2008) is a live album.
The ambitious Anno Domini High Definition (2009) contains the
seven-minute Driven to Destruction,
the nine-minute Egoist Hedonist (trumpet, saxophone, trombone),
the eleven-minute Left Out (perhaps too indulgent),
and the twelve-minute Hybrid Times (the highlight, especially the second half).
Much is derivative on
Shrine Of New Generation Slaves (2013), like the
single Celebrity Touch, but the mini-epics
Deprived and
Escalator Shrine rank among their best atmospheric moments (except that their "best" is simply passable by prog-rock standards).
The trend towards a mellower sound continued on
Love, Fear And The Time Machine (2015), containing
Towards the Blue Horizon.
Grudzinski died in 2016.
Wasteland (2018), containing the
nine-minute The Struggle for Survival, was even less "prog" and almost "folk".
ID.Entity (2023) contains the 13-minute The Place Where I Belong.
The music though has become even more bland and faceless.
