SECOND LIFE SYNDROME

I seem to be in the rare position of not actually liking Riverside's second album as much as their first. I don't know what it is - certainly, aside from a slightly heavier emphasis on the metal side of their sound, most of the ingredients of the first album are here - but on balance I think it's down to the album sounding a bit more cold and clinical in its execution than the previous album was. It's enough to make me worry that Riverside may go down the same path as so many other prog metal albums whose works are widely celebrated in the community but leave me cold - an over-emphasis on technicality without a corresponding increase in the band's command of emotion and atmosphere (or, as in so any cases, a positive decrease in that).