Review: Riverside – Live ID.

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Review: Riverside – Live ID.

InsideOutMusic (January 24th 2025)

Reviewer – Chris O’Connor

Okay, first of all, it’s confession time … until picking up this absolutely brilliant ‘live’ album, somehow, although I knew the name Riverside, I’d simply never actually heard them – and that’s been my loss. Just in case you are also unaware, Riverside is a Progressive Rock outfit from Warsaw in Poland, who already has eight studio albums to their name, and this is the fourth ‘live’ album in their canon. Since picking up on this, I have since dutifully collected their back catalogue and now count them among my favourite bands.

So, what do they sound like? Imagine a heady fusion of Devin Townsend, Threshold, Anathema, Porcupine Tree, Rush, Saga, Marillion, Pain Of Salvation and Tool – all the very best bits of those artists in one glorious musical melange – and you’d have Riverside, and they are genuinely absolutely astonishing. I cannot believe that I have missed out on them until now. Damn!

Riverside is a quartet: Mariusz Duda (vocals/bass/guitars), Maciej Meller (guitars), Michal Lapaj (keyboards/backing vocals), and Piotr Kozieradzki (drums/percussion), and four more talented musicians you could not hope to come across. Mariuz has a voice that magnificently crosses Devin Townsend, Steven Wilson, Vincent Cavanagh (Anathema), Michael Sadler (Saga), and the late great Andrew ‘Mac’ McDermott (Threshold) – being both wonderfully powerful and smoothly melodic, he really is quite exceptional.

This live album was recorded in front of a passionate hometown audience, who clearly know every word and every nuance of every song. The band’s delivery is flawless throughout, my observation as a new fan, is that the live interpretations of the songs are a little thicker and heavier than the studio versions, which is all to the good. Opener ‘#Addicted’ has become a firm favourite for me, being nothing short of anthemic, it’s an absolute barnstormer.

Other personal highlights for me are the Saga-esque ‘Egoist Hedonist’, the huge and brilliant ‘The Place Where I Belong’, the sprawling ‘Conceiving You’, and the truly wonderful ‘Left Out’, though to highlight these particular songs for extra praise actually seems somewhat churlish, as the whole album is honestly nigh on flawless. This will definitely be one of my top albums of 2025.

I’ve had ‘Live ID.‘ on repeated rotation here, I’ve absolutely fallen in love with the music of Riverside, if you’ve not already come across the band, I sincerely urge you to do so at your earliest opportunity. If you’ve already a fan (or even if you’re not) and you’ve not already bought this – why are you still sitting here? Go and buy ‘Live ID.’, I guarantee you will be instantly satisfied. File under ‘Brilliant!’.

Tracklist: 

  1. #Addicted
  2. Panic Room
  3. Landmine Blast
  4. Big Tech Brother
  5. Lost
  6. Left Out
  7. Post-Truth
  8. The Place Where I Belong
  9. Egoist Hedonist
  10. Friend Or Foe?
  11. Self-Aware
  12. Conceiving You

Line-up:

Mariusz Duda – vocal, bass

Michał Łapaj – keyboards and backing vocal

Maciej Meller – guitar

Piotr Kozieradzki – drums

Web Links:

Official Website

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