SECOND LIFE SYNDROME

That's really what I have to say about all the glowing positive reviews on the top. This album is NOT a Progressive Metal masterpiece, but this band has yet to settle itself in the Progressive Metal scene.

Anyways, back to this album, this is obviously a well received and a well chronicled piece of Progressive Metal work and of course the second release by the Polish Progressive Metal band, Riverside. When I first heard this band, it was in 2003, browsing through the many sections of the Inside Out website. I first heard a strange uncommon band that sort of sounded like an insane combination of Pain of Salvation, Extreme Metal, Neo-Prog and other Psychedelic influences (most soundly of course being Floyd).

So I decided to check out this band, Riverside. I've rarely if ever listen to Polish Prog, maybe a couple of bands interest me, but this one really hit the floor. Their first album was quite good from this Polish Progressive Metal outfit, with the sad, lacrimose psychedelic Metal sound along with Neo Progressive tendencies of course. I was very excited about this band, so I purchased the first album, Out of Myself and find it very interesting at first, but I quickly grew out of it just like how I grew out of a lot of Metal bands that I now call 'generic'. The album was good, but not really that good.

Then comes Second Life Syndrome, their second Inside Out America release and I did not want to buy it, because I did not want to be as disappointed after 10 listens like the first album gave me. So I decided to download it and when I did, the music was completely different in a lot of aspects compared to the first album. The Neo Progressive traits that were so obviously shown in the first album were no longer present, but replaced by a sad, emotional almost- Pain Of Salvation like music, without the dramatic brilliance of Daniel Gildenlow of course. I must admit, I really did not like this album until I heard it several times and it constantly reminded me of Porcupine Tree, as compared to the first album mainly being a boring reminder of how some Progressive music/'generic' Metal was such a lull.

The first album was not very exciting and this one has yet to capitalize with me. Even though I liked it at first, it never really fully grew on me, the parts stayed the same, much like the first album, except in a much more brighter way. Second Life Syndrome was a very interesting track, along with the ballad-like Artifical Smile. The almost "pathetic" lyrics also failed to reach me. Overall, this album is a very good, emotional album, but not an album to go overboard on, especially the reviews before hand.

Overall, this album is about 88% or 4.33 stars.

I mean, this is a good album, but its not quite as good as most people take it to be.

Bottom Note: Riverside is a band that has grown on me and now love. They are definitely a band that takes time to grow. (A good hint of Prog music!)

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