Riverside

Drawn together by a shared love of heavy metal and progressive rock, Riverside emerged in the early 2000s in Warsaw, Poland. Founded by mutual friends who intended to use their backgrounds in metal to explore new territory in prog rock along the lines of Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, and Tool, the quartet began creating spacious and experimental music with a metal edge on their 2003 debut, Out of Myself. They hit their stride in the late 2000s, topping the Polish charts in 2009 with their fourth full-length outing, Anno Domini High Definition. The untimely death of guitarist Piotr Grudziński in 2016 put the band's future in jeopardy, but they reconvened in 2018 as a trio for the studio LP Wasteland. Riverside were founded in 2001 in Warsaw, Poland, by Mariusz Duda (vocals, bass, guitar), Piotr Grudziński (guitar), Piotr Kozieradzki (drums), and Jacek Melnicki (keyboards). The quartet members intended to use their backgrounds in metal to explore new territory in prog rock along the lines of Dream Theater and Tool, creating spacious and experimental music with a metal edge. Even before their first record was finished, Riverside began to experience creative differences, with Melnicki (who was later replaced by current keyboard player Michal Lapaj) splitting from the group to pursue his own studio projects in 2003. Later that year, the band issued its full-length debut, Out of Myself, which was released the following year in the U.S. on Laser's Edge. After the success of their first record, the bandmembers got back to work on new material. In 2005, they released the EP Voices in My Head, gaining the attention of InsideOut, which released their second album, Second Life Syndrome, later that year. In 2007, after a European tour in support of Dream Theater, the group released Rapid Eye Movement. In 2009, they put out another studio record, Anno Domini High Definition (on Mystic Productions), which quickly became the best-selling record in Poland. Shrine of New Generation Slaves, the band's fifth studio long-player, arrived in 2013, followed in 2015 by Love, Fear and the Time Machine. Tragedy befell Riverside at the start of 2016, when Grudzinski suffered from fatal heart failure, putting the future of the band in question. Determined to continue, the band released a compilation of ambient electronic instrumentals titled Eye of the Soundscape. Issued in 2016, it contained all the bonus material from Shrine of New Generation Slaves as well as four new tracks -- the lengthy "Where the River Flows," "Eye of the Soundscape," "Shine," and "Sleepwalkers" -- that accounted for a third of the 100-plus-minute release. Electing to soldier on as a trio, the band returned to the studio in 2018 and released the apocalypse-themed Wasteland. Touring in support of the album, the band was joined by guitarist Maciej Meller (Quidam, Meller Gołyźniak Duda), who became a permanent member in 2020. That same year marked by the release of the concert LP Lost 'N' Found: Live in Tilburg, which was recorded during the band's 2015 European tour in support of Love, Fear and the Time Machine, featuring Grudzinski on guitar.
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