02 PANIC ROOM

02 Panic Room is the first single from Riverside´s 2007 album Rapid Eye Movement. Rapid Eye Movement is a really good progressive metal/ rock album and 02 Panic Room is one of the most prolific songs on the album. The original has a main part that reminds me of Depeche Mode while the beautiful ending of the song reminds me a bit about Marillion ( at least the guitar has a very Steve Rothery approach to it).

The single consists of four songs. The first song is the edited single version of 02 Panic Room which is similar to the original just without the Marillion like ending. It´s still a good song without the ending but I do prefer the original. Lucid Dream IV is a continuation of the instrumental saga which began on the debut from Riverside. It´s a pretty heavy and nicely structured song. Back to the River is basically a Vehicle for a Piotr Grudzinski guitar solo. Towards the end the guitar riff from Pink Floyd´s Shine on You Crazy Diamond is played. I suppose it´s as an ode to one of Riverside´s biggets sources of inspiration. It´s a very well conceived track. The last song here is a remix version of the edited single version of 02 Panic Room. I know many prog heads hate the word remix but in this case it´s a very succesful version that differs in a good way from the original.

The musicianship is as usual of high quality and likewise with the production.

I very seldom find singles worth purchasing but the two singles released from Rapid Eye Movement have both proved to be very worthy additions to my collection. 02 Panic Room deserves 4 stars IMO, and I will definitely use this one to introduce hostile friends ( and enemies) to Riverside.