Riverside

Combining metal thunder with experimental ambience, Riverside started playing colossal, swelling, prog rock set-pieces in Warsaw, Poland in 2001. Drummer Piotr Kozieradzki and guitarist Piotr Grudzinski were both stalwarts of local death metal bands in the 1990s, but were keen to escape grinding, ear-bleeding, industrial purges and create something with atmospheric sonic ambition. Keyboard player Jacek Melnicki instantly gave them more melodic scope, but when front man and bass player Mariusz Duda joined they really started to grow, drawing inspiration from local artists, including Czeslaw Niemec and Lech Janerka, the classic 1970s rock of Pink Floyd and Genesis and the 1980s metal gods like Metallica and Iron Maiden.

The combination of styles and experimental risks of debut album 'Out of Myself' impressed both European metal and prog-rock crowds, and after Melnicki was replaced by Michal Lapaj, the band continued to build big, dreamy, mood-shifting soundscapes on 'Second Life Syndrome' in 2005 and 'Rapid Eye Movement' in 2007. They went on to tour with their heroes Dream Theater and Duda regularly released solo work under the name Lunatic Soul, but the band remained one the big forces in Europe's progressive metal scene with albums 'Anno Domini High Definition' and 'Shrine of New Generation of Slaves'.

Grudzinski died suddenly of a heart attack in 2016, but Riverside returned in 2018 with a new album 'Wasteland', which was considered to be the heaviest and most emotionally wrought work of the band's career.