SECOND LIFE SYNDROME

Riverside's second album, Second Life Syndrome, surprisingly flew under my radar for a while. I've been using multiple music forums, and I've spoken to multiple music fans since 2023, and yet somehow, I only found out about the band around two months ago (at the time of writing this review). When I got around to listening to the album, I was disappointed to say the least. The album is severely overrated and is simply an alright album that I can manage to listen to. The album is a concept album that's the second in a three-part trilogy that included their first and third albums. The overall concept is alright, and I like how the band explores unique emotions, ideas, and musical elements in each of the three albums. Speaking of the unique musical elements, Second Life Syndrome changes from the original characteristics of their first album, Out Of Myself. It's influenced more by heavier and progressive elements, combining longer compositions with aggressive guitar work. Moving on to the album cover, I thought it had a good idea around it, but the overall cover just isn't that impressive or substantial. You can tell where different things were added in through editing, and the uncanny look of some of the stretched bits looks out of place. The highlight tracks on the album are the title track, Reality Dream III, Dance With the Shadows, and Before.

The opening track, After, isn't that great, though, with it being split between a short spoken word passage and strange, spacey noise and unintelligible lyrics. The next song, Volte-Face, is better but is still not up to par with the highlights I mentioned. It's just a bit boring and has nothing really interesting except for the fact that it's a regular metal song with a progressive twist. I also cannot stand the screams their singer Mariusz Duda does throughout the album. In my opinion, he isn't really fit for the metal genre. Conceiving You is, from what I can tell, the most popular song on the album. It's not that interesting, and for the most part, just average radio metal for the time. Up next is the fifteen-minute-long title track, which is my favorite song off the album. It contains a level of complexity that I find quite enjoyable and intricate and technical playing by the band that doesn't drag the listener but grabs them and journeys through the different stages of the song. Even though my rating for the album might not be high, this song definitely deserves a strong 4/5 rating. However, the band sacrifices this progressive energy for Artificial Smile, which leans away from traditional progressive rock, like the title track, and more into heavier material. I Turned You Down continues the trend of the more solidified metal music. I still do appreciate the weaving of more complex material into the veins of the last two songs, but it still has the less intriguing edge to it. Reality Dreams III brings the listener back into the elaborate mix of progressive madness. This is similar to Dream Theater's Dance of Eternity, with its instrumental music giving the song time to breathe out the multiplex time signatures and create a new musical soundscape that intertwines the audience and music. I find this to be pretty cool, as I wasn't expecting such a comeback this far in the album. Dance With the Shadow is the second suite off the album, being around eleven minutes. Similar to the title track, it's actually quite interesting and has a sense of technicality similar to Reality Dreams III. Some of the parts draw influences from the band Tool, and the band's own unique input is also pretty good. The atmosphere of the song sets the mood in a good way, and the overall progressive insights of this wrap up this song nicely. The final song is called Before, and I have mixed feelings about this song. It has a depressing feeling that shows true emotion, but I feel the band could've shown some better musicianship. The playing is just a little bland, and the structure isn't complex or that thought out. 

In conclusion, the album could've been a lot better had the band added some more passion into their playing and tweaked a few songs around. It's boring at parts and not interesting enough for me to look at it fondly. Sure, it had its moments here and there, but the overwhelming lack of enthusiasm and excellent songwriting certainly holds back my rating for this album. I know I'm the minority when I say this, but the highest I can give it is a 3/5.

Social review comments

Review related links

• Send comments to SliprKC70
• Report this review (#3153545)
• Buy RIVERSIDE music online with PA partners
• Show all RIVERSIDE MP3/Stream
• Go to RIVERSIDE page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Second Life Syndrome page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for RIVERSIDE related discussions