Riverside - Out of Myself (2003)

Riverside is my private "comfort music" band. I don't know anyone beside myself who was/is as into them as me, and that's perfect, because their music really fits that specific role. Their sound has changed a lot and evolved over the years into something that I don't enjoy that much, but the early trilogy (and some later albums too) is soooo good and means a whole lot to me.

"Out of Myself" is a weird album, because on the surface it just sounds like a generic 2000s prog album, but the more you listen to it, the more you start to notice those weird quirks this band has. First of all, the album is dark but in this eerie way. This is not Porcupine Tree's "In Absentia" type darkness (evil drop D riffs that appear out of nowhere, disturbing lyrics, etc), that often appears in 2000s prog. The band plays in standard tuning, the lyrics are sentimental and introspective but also pretty surface-level. The main source of this looming darkness it's the band's sound as a whole. As far as I know, some of the members have a background in more extreme metal music (death metal/black metal??). The riffs are twisting and eneven, the use of wordless vocals is phenomenal and has this haunting, tribal feel to it and the soft, more subdued parts connect with the heavy madness seamlessly.

The album begins with the mangled radio transmission sample, which incluses bits and pieces of various voices, songs (e.g. "Hotel California" and maybe also "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd??), which transitions smoothly into a drone. This is when the biggest gripe I have with this LP comes into a spotlight. Piotr is a talented guitarist and I like his characteristic style, but his guitar sounds terrible on this album... The tone feels cheap and plasticky - I don't like it at all. Also on this album specifically, he has the issue of overdoing his parts. He plays and noodles A LOT even where the silence would be more appropriate musically. After he stops noodling, there comes the absolute peak. In these early years, Riverside tried to dip their toes in trip-hop music, which worked exceptionally well. This percussive part does the whole song for me and instantly makes "The Same River" one of my absolute favorite tracks by them. The section transitions into proggy madness and then into the vocal verse, of course sticking to a different quirky time signature each time. I love how Mariusz uses his bass as a geniune rhythm instrument, while playing aggresively and with a pick at the same time. This type of playing often leads to using bass as (lead) guitar (like Steven Wilson or Geddy Lee), but Mariusz stays in the rhythm section consistently, while providing neat vocals at the same time.

The fourth part of the song showcases that the band simply excels at more silent and toned-down sounds. I love it a lot and when I heard it for The first time it seemed really familiar to nie for some reason. The song then explodes into a questionable guitar solo/outro... Sorry I just don't like Piotr's playing here... But the song is just awesome - a perfect opener for an album like that.

"Out of Myself", the next and eponympous track showcases the band's characteristic twisting riffage. The rhytm section is on fire here - the interplay between bass and drums is relentless and tight, as the song unwinds into furious and emotional piece. Mariusz delivers a lot of emotional screams at some points, which is a quality that the band lost for good after the "New Generation Slaves" LP... Despite that I'm not a big fan of screams and growls in music, he does it exceptionally well imo and it fits the drab atmosphere of this song and the record overall. Also, there's a nice acoustic version of these track, available and the "Acoustic Session" EP from late 2019, which I enjoy as much as this version. The next song is "I Believe" which I like a lot for its more melodic and calm approach to building atmosphere. This spoken-word is so ridiculously corny tho... I never liked it at all. The song itself shows a lot of classic Riversidian acoustic-focused vulnerability and is really cool and well-written, so too bad they stained it with this ugly ass intro...

What follows is the band's first instrumental track "Reality Dream" which is the first part of the trilogy that spans first couple of albums. The song is fine and features satisfying odd-time rhytm section interplay along with very present keyboard soundscapes. The second part is also ok, but with the exception of again kinda tacky, sound effects focused intro (but I gotta say that it works much better here!) it's simply forgettable for the most part.

"Loose Heart" placed between the two "Reality Dream" tracks is probably my favourite here. It begins a very strong run of tracks and it's hauntingly atmospheric. I really like the plucky guitar arpeggio in the beginning and Mariusz's emotional vocals. Overall the song features really powerful melodies, but it's not afraid to throw it all away for the brutal vocal breakdown at the end! This moment is probably the bands heaviest musical passage they've ever written. Mariusz scream is intimidating and keyboards provide musical background that contrasts earlier more ethereal sounds and further underlines the darkness of the song. The only major gripe I have with this song is the ending. How could they end such evil and emotional song with just a simple "Ta-daaaah!" type sound on keyboard... It's so off-putting and lazy. With their musical workshop, they could've done much better.

Time for another acoustic ballad. "In Two Minds" was my favourite here, but I overplayed this song over the years. It further explores the sounds featured on "I Believe" and again, shows how complete the band's sound is. They can make evil progmetal songs and vulnerabile, simple ballads with the same stylistic approach that fits the overall record.

The penultimate track, titled "The Curtain Falls" reminds me a lot of what of "Loose Heart" intro was an entire composition. It's melodious and spacious and features awesome bassline that sets the mood of the song. Guitar and keyboard provide neat touches that double down on very subdued, ethereal vibe, reminiscent of Pink Floyd. Then, after a title drop, the Pink Floyd musical theme continues, but instead of "Shine On" type sounds, the band seems to quote "Another Brick in The Wall" but drives it unexpected ways. This section is mainly Piotr's show-off time, but it's still very atmospheric and haunting. Another nice and powerful track that I often come back to...

"OK" - the closing track is an exceptionally interesting curiosity. They've NEVER made a song with this vibe again. I suppose it's Jacek's piece, since he left after this album and that might explain why this song feels so different and outstanding in comparison with the rest of their discography. It's jazzy, nocturnal and mysterious and I really like it for that. It's a very fitting closer for this type of album. Interestingly enough, it features these eerie vocal sounds from the beginning of "The Same River" at the end as a nice easter egg.

To summarise, this album is great but it's not perfect at all. Very questionable songwriting decisions, weird approach to guitar (both in terms of production and writing) and overall mediocore to even bad production unfortunately makes it really not worth to recommend to anyone. Like, I really like this record and it's one of my all-timers, but you'll need a lot of musical tolerance to enjoy it. Not all songs are like that, but for the most part I'd say the LP isn't very accessible even for prog fans. If you wanna get into Riverside, start with the next album - "Second Life Syndrome", as it's much more polished and realised in terms of conceptual vision. It depends on my mood and the current time in the year, but personally I might enjoy this debut one more.

Ok so literally week or so ago, Mariusz Duda announced he leaves the band. Believe it or not I didn't know about that and I thought about writing this review much earlier, due to it being spring season, which I associate with the band a lot. But anyway...

If you didn't hear, the band was on semi-hiatus since about a year or so. After the south-american tour, they released "Live ID" live album and announced they're going to have a break from touring and went radio-silent on their socials. The silence was broken by Mariusz's bitter annoucement. All the members of the band followed in some way or another, so we kinda have a complete picture of what happened.

Basically, the tensions within the band (mainly between Mariusz and Piotr) have become unbearable. The creative differences made songwriting cooperation virtually impossible. I suppose Mariusz wanted to advance the sound in some way that was a deal-breaker for Piotr. Currently (30.04.2026) we know that both Mariusz and Maciej left the band for good. We don't know about Michał, but Piotr for sure wants to continue, with new personel. Interestingly, we also learnt that Jacek - the band's OG keyboardist has an apparent grudge towards all the members. He said the band stole his songs and scammed him bad. Apparently there even was a court case about all that stuff! Well it is what it is.

I've never had a chance to go to their concert - even that I planned to go twice! In 2019 I even bought a ticket, but the show was cancelled due to covid. I got a neat exclusive boxset as a compensation tho... Then in 2022/2023 they played in my hometown, but I couldn't go due to previously planned summer vacation trip... I was like, ehhh it's a pity but no worries, they for sure will come back here after some time... Well I guess not. Fortunately, the Mariusz's solo projects are very nice too (and very underrated!) and supposedly Lunatic Soul live shows are coming, so I'll definitely be seeing at least one of them!