OUT OF MYSELF

Here, I present to you one of the most generic prog metal bands I have ever heard in my life. I actually knew about this album from around eight years ago, and listened it twice. But I just didn't like it, and I decided to forget about this band. I discovered this site and after remembering this bands existence again, I decided to check their album "Second Life Syndrome". I also didn't like it. Here I found out that I probably was just not going to like this band, but I still wanted them to click on me.

So I thought I had a bad impression about this album, so I decided to check it again. I thought it was going to be great considering it's rated higher than Dream Theater's masterful Awake and Queensryche's iconic Operation Mindcrime, but on the other hand I had a bad feeling: There was probably a reason why I didn't like at all this album the first two times I listened it.

So is it better than Awake and Operation Mindcrime?

Anyways, it's not. By a landslide. There's something that I never really liked about Riverside and it's how they have such an unrecognizable sound. This album could've easily been made by Porcupine Tree in their Prog Metal era or by Opeth in their new Era. There's nothing unique about it.

The songs follow this typical "mellow melody with acoustic guitar then guitar riff kicks in with odd time signature" type of song structure. Either that or a ballad, but the ballads were truly boring and uninspired. I guess the standout would be the opener, mostly because it's a little more experimental instead of the formulaic prog metal seen in the rest of the album.

Unfortunately, The Same River gets overshadowed by the boring, generic tracks that overflow the album. One star.