Riverside - *official thread*

Three song EP that finds the vocals staying mostly on the mellower side and lets the Floydian guitar soar. I try to think what's so special about these guys and I think it's the ability to let the music be undersated when it needs to be. Anyways, 32 minutes of proggy excellence.

Good stuff, VERY Porcupine Tree sounding on this EP. I haven't had a chance to explore much of their catalog yet, but I've liked the little bit I've heard.

You'll like it thought some of it wanders more into the metal side then PT.

I seemed to have missed this one...

exact33 wrote:

I seemed to have missed this one...

It's an EP, I found a used copy at Amoeba for $3.

S.D. wrote:

exact33 wrote:

I seemed to have missed this one...

It's an EP, I found a used copy at Amoeba for $3.

nice. I have most of their other stuff. Good band.

Dark Horseman wrote:

You'll like it thought some of it wanders more into the metal side then PT.

That's how they were sold to me. Like a more "metal" version of Porcupine Tree. That's all I needed to hear. I like them allot.

The new ep is good too. I read that the tracks were reworked leftovers from the Voices in My Head album sessions, hence the title. Only 3 tracks, but nearly a 30 minute running time.

I like to stay a little closer to the rock side of prog generally (I'm not a prog metal fan by any stretch of the imagination), but these guys are quite good.

I think they are prog boys who add metal instead of metal boys who add prog. Just my little way of keeping it straight.

Dark Horseman wrote:

I think they are prog boys who add metal instead of metal boys who add prog. Just my little way of keeping it straight.

Sounds accurate to me.

They are good regardless of the classification. I loved Anno Domini high Definition.

Yeah, great band. The EP was way too pricey when I bought it, though.

I need to buy an album from these guys. They sound like something that I would like.

chewie wrote:

I need to buy an album from these guys. They sound like something that I would like.

Well I don't know how you feel about mp3 albums, but if you don't mind them you can get Anno Domini High Definition from Amazon.com for only $5.95.

When I bought textbooks for school I ended up getting a 5.00 credit for mp3 purchases at Amazon so I figured I'd use that to finally check out Riverside. Glad I did, it's a pretty good album. I'll probably end up getting some more as well.

I'm listening to the album "Out Of Myself" on Spotify right now. It's a nice sounding record, but so far the compositions aren't really sticking with me. It's a little more ethereal sounding than Porcupine Tree, more of a pleasant wash of sound, but the songs themselves seem to flow into each other without much differentiation between them. The song I like the best is the instrumental "Reality II".

Do they have any live recordings? That's usually what will make or break a band like this for me.

I haven't heard of any official live releases. Their stuff does tend to run together more on Out of Myself then other albums though that is their a lot on almost everything they've done. I'd try to listen to Second Life Syndrome on the album of that name. Super Gilmourish on guitar but a great song. You don't like that one, you might want to pass on this band but i'll bet it grows on you.

I found a live clip of the song Second Life Syndrome...



I'll keep an eye out for this DVD. I connect with groups faster when being able to watch them perform. I became a fan of Porcupine Tree because of their "Arriving Somewhere" DVD and Opeth via the "Lamentations" DVD. Once I can see them perform it makes the studio recordings click.

Great stuff.

Check out Lunatic Soul, the singer's side project. It's wicked mellow, but so damn good!

Quote :

Do they have any live recordings? That's usually what will make or break a band like this for me.

Reality Dream is a live recording, available in cd or dvd format.

I've checked out that Lunatic Soul stuff before. Kinda cool, but not something I would listen to very often I think.

new song:


this seems a lot different than previous material.

THAT is a totally killer song!

Love the move back to Hammond Organ for that track. Sounds like they've been listening to what Beardfish, Opeth and Steven Wilson have been doing for the past couple years, dropping the modern stuff and going back to the organic sound of early 70s instrumentation.

I like that track. The keys remind me of Deep Purple and the guitar riff sounds like something off of Aqualung (I kept wishing for a flute break).

exact33 wrote:

new song:


this seems a lot different than previous material.

Damn. You ain't kidding. Pretty great song, though!

I guess they had to branch out but I hope they didn't totally dump the 80's PF sound as I love what they were doing. Great song though, these guys have so much talent.