MEMORIES IN MY HEAD

"Memories in my Head" is an EP released after the highly successful "Anno Domini High Definition", which returns to Riverside's primordial roots marked by "Out of Myself" and "Second Life Syndrome", and with its more than thirty-two minutes it lacked little more than nothing to become a fully-fledged album. Three tracks were enough to build a short but intense proposal on the basis of atmospheric, dark, intriguing and futuristic scenarios, which combine progressive elements of seventies and eighties heroes, ethereal transitions and heavy chords of the roughest side of the genre.

The pieces are connected to each other by the common denominator of a long gone and missed time: from the disturbing beginning of "Goodbye Sweet Innocence", and its steady but unhurried pace, guided in its development by Mariusz Duda's melancholic voice and Michal Lapaj's protagonic and mysterious keyboards with Arabic airs at times, the raging and superlative "Living in the Past" that shows the overwhelming solvency the Poles are capable of, with mid-tempos dominated by the forcefulness that flows naturally from the distorted guitar riffs of the excellent Piotr Grudzinski, the hypnotic keyboards of Michal Lapaj and the sober accompaniment of the ever-fulfilling drummer Piotr Kozieradzki, in one of the best tracks in Riverside's discography, until the tragic "Forgotten Land", a description of the dramatic fate of a people condemned by their arrogance, where the opening bass lines recall Rush's "Cygnus X-1" and give way to a painful and heartbreaking lyrical narration by Duda accompanied by the whole band until its haunting end.

"Memories in my Head" is a great EP, which was only available at concerts and shortly after fortunately offered to the general public. A jewel in the discography of the band led by Duda.

Excellent.

4/4.5 stars