Wasteland

Throughout the history of heavy music, very few bands have ever opted, after a member’s tragic demise, for moving forward without that member. In most cases, they have found a replacement (Metallica’s Jason Newsted for late Cliff Burton) or, in some fewer cases, have disbanded altogether (Damage Plan is a very short-lived yet long-loved example). Riverside, this gem in Polish progressive scene, decided to grieve for their loved guitarist companion (Piotr Grudziński) but resume with the remaining three members and work on their latest studio album as a trio.

This decision has swayed the efforts of the band on this album so colossally and so critically that the impact might be irrevocable. The dominant ambience of the album is more post-apocalyptic, more futuristic and more melancholic than the band’s previous releases. But at the same time, they have strived to keep their progressive sound present as well, though they haven’t gone overboard with that.

The title of the album (Wasteland), quite as well as the cover art and even the track names, scream catastrophe and despondency. Just how much hope do you think you can find in “Lament” or “Vale of Tears” or “The Struggle for Survival”? And these are not taken from a funeral doom metal act!

The album opens with a sense of grief and bewilderment: “What if it's not, if it's not meant to be? / What if someone has made a mistake? / What we've become, there's no turning back”. That is precisely the question in the back of your head that punches you with a sense of an aftermath of a disaster. Mariusz Duda’s subdued and melodic chanting echoes in the emptiness of the background, only to be adorned mid-song with some looming sinister electronic ambiance to lift you from your place and leave you in the midst of a demolished (and probably war-torn) badlands.

The title of the opener, The Day After, is a testimony to this sense. Then you are faced with the cold and bitter Acid Rain, which is an apocalyptic, dark and rancorous continuation of the previous track. For those who seek prog, this track should satiate this thirst. It is technical and has an appealing riff and the keyboard also plays a prominent role.

In the same vein with Acid Rain is Vale of Tears, the third song you would listen to. The same level of prog flows in this song as well, however, the drum beat is heavier and musically, it’s not as dark. In particular, the second half of the song with its headbangable riff makes it so that it easily became my favorite section of the album. Lyrically speaking, it’s a tale of a promised land turned into a barren desert, another segment of this Wasteland.

After this display of technical abilities and painting this distressing picture with words, now it’s time to have your heart torn in two by this tear-jerking, heart-wrenching piece/lullaby which is Guardian Angel. Slow-paced, meticulous and controlled, this atmospheric duet of acoustic guitar and piano, accompanied with deep but tender voice of Duda, relates the story of an observer of a shooting talking to somebody else (which we later realize is his –absent- child), questioning the foundation of good and bad, morality, fear and sin. This monolog then turns into a dialogue in the next track, Lament, between this father/observer and the addressee/ a lost child/. The child has left them but haven’t returned, the mother is on the verge of breathing her last and now the father intends to set off a journey with his child. As this is the continuation of the storyline in the previous track, we can see similar musical traces: acoustic intro, soft singing and smooth (violin) outro.

But then prog comes back and this time at its fullest. The 9 minutes and 32 seconds The Struggle for Survival is supposed to be the instrumental jewel of the album. Such songs are the arena for the instrumentalists to showcase the best of their abilities, and this track is just the same. Bass is stunning, drumming is overwhelming, keyboard is catchy, acoustic guitar is what it should be, and rhythm guitar puts forward some badass riffs, even the humming in the last part of the song falls into place. The whole effort, though all too regrettably, has been marred by some substandard guitar lead in the first half of the song, which is too shrill and squawky (and believe me when a metal head says that, it has to be appalling). That guitar playing feels out of tune and out of place.

From this instrumental adventure, we then are cast back to the grief-stricken land of melancholia. River Down Below, another single previously released, seems to be telling the story from the point of view of the mother in Lament (or maybe someone else near death). They do not “have too many requirements”: they just wish to be taken “to the river down below” and be laid there so that they would “crumble back into the dust”. What a song and what affecting lyrics!

From this emotional genius, we are then moved to the next phase of the journey in the heart of the land of desolation. Wasteland, the title track, opens with a neo-folk, dark folk air, something like Rome, Empyrium, Tenhi or other similar artists. Then the keyboard and electric guitar kick in and the song paces up to give us another progressive chunk, followed by the last song on the album, The Night Before.

The story of Wasteland is embarking on an expedition on a dark road and it is continued in the closing track, where they finally reach someplace safe: a camp. They can stay there for the night, so we see that the parent is pacifying the child to sleep. They still hear the bombs in the distance, yet they are unafraid and hopeful that they will “survive intact again”, and so are we!

This album more than anything else, is a post-apocalyptic narrative intertwined with lugubrious music. It is recursive and circular, since it is only one day in the life of this wretched family, struggling to survive. The end (The Night Before) is both a closure and a precursor to the beginning (The Day After). It all gives evidence that what Riverside has done on this album is beyond music. After their mid-career crisis on the early 2010s with two subpar albums, Wasteland revives their grace and propels them back to the top. A true praiseworthy output with commendable lyricism.