Riverside´s new disc;

[chimaera]

Here´s a clip from review from Batmuz:

"The debut album was perhaps the band's most melodically engaging work while Second Life Syndrome saw the band expanding into heavier territory accentuated by intense guitar work. As for Rapid Eye Movement, this is their most atmospheric statement, created to underline the psychological turmoil of the protoganist. This is not to say any of their albums lack melody or atmospheric depth; it's just each album has its own priority and the level of cohesion achieved between each release is remarkable. The production is amazing, perhaps their best. Upon the first couple of listens, I had to think of the production of Katatonia's The Great Cold Distance, though this has somewhat waned now. Still, I can't help but listen to these albusm back to back -- they do have something in common, at least spiritually.

Now that they've released their albums and solidified their sound, it will be interesting to observe what kind of path Riverside will forge on their future albums.

They will not disappoint."

I know their tasty and all but i don´t know if i want to hear another Riverside record right now. I´ll wait.

[kerrick]

I've got a burnt copy of "Second Life Syndrome" and like it quite a bit. Riverside is a band that I plan to get all their stuff, though at the moment they're not at the top of my list of "to buy" cds. I'm interested in hearing what this new one sounds like though - that review really intrigued me saying how it's more atmospheric because that's one of the parts I liked most about "Second Life Syndrome." Sounds good!

[SethFWF]

Man, I love these guys...both full lengths prior to the new one are stellar IMO. Still have to get a hold of the EP and now the new one, have read differing reviews of it. None say it's bad by any means, but some say it doesn't hold up to the first 2. Sure it's worth the price either way.

For other fans, Ben recommended Indukti "S.U.S.A.R." and it's very good. Mostly instrumental with Duda from Riverside doing vocals on 3 songs, pretty cool stuff...heavy and lots of violin.

[chimaera]

Yeah Second Life Syndrome is massive, the riffs are addictive, the atmosphere dark yet uplifting, and when the singer starts to scream... that´s what really makes Riverside stand out. It´s n just another fucking prog rock band, (god i hate that genre). There are evil sprits dwelling here and there and you can definitely tell that the songs could only have been made in Poland.

Next recommendation - the band smashing pumpkins, although i think this review is far better than the record, lol.

"As far as I'm concerned, The Smashing Pumpkins have gone from arguably the greatest bands of the nineties, to one of the most unintentionally hilarious groups of the noughties. Before I get onto that, I'll give you a bit of back history (arent I great? I bet you're DREAMING of sucking me off). Billy wanted back in, after being left out of the limelight since the early nineties. So our favourite slaphead gets a GREAT idea: Wouldn't reforming one of the biggest bands of the nineties for an epic comeback, make Billy a shitload of money? So, there goes Mr Corgan, who in all his infinite wisdom, decides to reunite the band WITHOUT TELLING THE OTHER BAND MEMBERS. James Ida and Darcy stay the fuck away, so what does Billy do? Hire the HOTTEST female bassist on the planet, and some foreign dude (cause he's foreign) who can play guitar really well. Poor aul Jimmy is dragged out of whatever he was doing, and BADA-BOOM! BILLY has his band again! And with this quick money making scheme, he can finally buy himself a fucking toupee!!

Theres so much wrong with this album, I could spent days and days telling you, while you fantasise about running me over with an eight wheeler. And its not just Billy’s lack of hair (there is actually a mental disorder which considers of being scared of bald people) Take the cover. The fucking worst album cover in the history of the universe, and the title, ZEITGEIST. Fucking ZEITGEIST! The whole thing feels hammy before you even open the c.d case. And guess what this albums about? It's YET another one of these "social commentary, OMG Bush is a cocksucking prat" political albums. Bullshit. Fucking bullshit. Think about it like this, this album is by the man who sang "DESPITE ALL MY RAGGEEEEE IIMMM STIILLL JUUUSSSSSSTTT AAAAA RAAATTTTT INNNNNNN AAAAA CAGGGGEEEEEE!!!" and NOW, hes acting as some smart arsed politically edged songwriter? Billy, seriously, who CARES? No one is going to take you seriously, cause you're name is BILLY CORGAN and your ego is even bigger than my enormous genitals (YOU KNOW IT BE TRUE!!). So we get such awful lyrics as "Fight! I wanna fight! Revolution tonight! (bad example, since that song RULES like the first series of that serial killer thing Dexter rules) and "For God And Country, Ill fight!, For God And Country, I'll die!" Can I ask WHY do new bands have to write something political EVERY FUCKING TIME?

Oh, and the fun doesn't stop there. The production is awful, a far cry from Siamese Dream/Butch Vig (those were good times). To Billys credit, it DOES sound like The Smashing Pumpkins, but that doesn't mean I have to sit through an overly loud mix, where you can BARELY hear the drums, and other areas such as vocals, guitars don't mesh together well. And all this is cause Billy had to put his fucking foot in things. Jesus, you have TERRY FUCKING DATE producing your album. The man is a SUPERB producer, and the fact that Billy has to take production to a large extent into his own hands, and turn this whole album into a loud, metallic mess is an absolute shame. Jesus, he couldn't just leave Date do his job could he? So to sum it up, this album is a money making scam, with poor production and cringeworthy lyrics. But DESPITE all this, this is money making scam, with poor production and cringeworthy lyrics, from someone who was ONCE the greatest songwriter of the nineties. So expect Billy to come up with a really good tune from time to time such as the blatant Zero rip off (but still unbelievably catchy) "Tarantula". If you're the kind of Pumpkins fan, who adored their quiet side, "1979","Today" etc...then you're going to be rather pissed off with this album. The whole album sounds like "Zero" or "Bodies" with about three ballads (which sadly, pretty much all blow) which is another big problem I have with Billy at this point in time. The Smashing Pumpkins were about more than just "OMG BIG HEVEE SCREECHING GUITARS" (One of the best things about Mellon Collie was the way it incorperated so many different genres into such a great package) but I'm not going to get into that in much detail.

"Doomsday Clock" kicks things off, the album then degenerates into a pleasant, but rather bland metallic dirge. Its fine I guess. Not GREAT by ANY means, but its reasonable enough. Then "Thats The Way" comes along and kicks ass all over the shop (cause it combines a quality heavy riff, with this really beautiful "AAAAHHH!!!" vocal bit in the middle where Billy overdubs himself about five times) but nothing and I mean NOTHING compares to "United States" which is one of the BEST FUCKING PUMPKINS SONGS EVER. See, don't you see (OPEN YOUR EYES) I told you Billy has some of his old talent left, and what a way to show it off, with an gargantuan ten minute prog metal epic. The actual song part is good in itself, but where this song REALLY starts getting good, is in its middle section (which reminds me of Interstellar Overdriver for some reason). Theres some spacy psychedelic jamming, before the song builds up to its unbelievable opening riff again, with Billy pulling off one of his downright coolest ideas ever. See, every time Billy sings a line, his voice starts echoing and repeating over and over again. He even does this "OW!!" Michael Jackson vocal bit (Its ORGASMIC, believe me) the song really gets going at this bit (I feel I'm describing a sexual act instead of a Pumpkins song) but the FROSTING on the motherfucking cheesecake ( I hate cheesecake, DIAORREA TIME!!) is when Billy screams out "DO YOU WANNA WATCH ME.....GOOO!!!!!!!!!" with that unbelievably sexy vocal echo bit. Coolest thing ever? No shit, it rules, and the thrash metal breakdown at the end (reminisant of Geek U.S.A., good times) is like doing Barbara Streisand up the ass. Great stuff.

After this point, the album suffers a massive fall in quality (Neverlost is purty enough though, the metallic mix for the guitars are completely unnecessary and sorta ruin the song for yours truly) and there is very little to recommend. I'd write more, but I've got an overdue bit of French homework to do. Oh and I cant be bothered cause I'm a supreme lazy bastard.

Couple of more pointers, and I'll finish thing up. Zeitgeist does manage to be unique by Pumpkins standards in a number of ways. First, Billy overdubs his voice god knows how many times, until you hear a choir of Billy’s (its much better than it sounds) sometimes it works, and sometimes it falls flat on its back (Starz, Pomp And Circumstances) and last of all, this is probably the only Pumpkins album where for me JIMMY not CORGAN is the absolute star of the show. Despite being buried in the mix, he's incredible. Slick drum fills turn to frantic thrash metal bass drums in the blink of an eyelid. He's fantastic, he really is, making the crap songs slightly better, and the good songs even greater (the opening tribal drumming in "United States" LISTEN NOW!) And the other two? Well the bassist is pretty hot. And at the end of the day that’s the only thing that matters.

Don't get me wrong, Billy hasn't lost it YET, but in an age where bands such as Sigur Ros, Kayo Dot, Radiohead, Porcupine Tree, Sufjan Stevens and Opeth (among others) rule supreme, The Smashing Pumpkins seem less vital, less important than before. Its not a humiliation, but Zeitgeist is certainly no triumph. Sadly, that is quite possibly the best Corgan could have hoped for."

[BenMech]

Once upon a time, BIlly Corgan and company made Gish. That was a good time. Then they made a song "Cherub Rock" on Siamese Dream. And then Billy Corgan became a useless bald nasal drone from Finland named Chimaera.

In other news, there's a new Polish outfit called Division By Zero which may be a side project of Mariusz Duda and

some guys from Scar Symmetry or whoever.

[chimaera]

Disagreed. I happen to agree with this genius/schmuck who wrote the review. He´s correct about every little detail, IMO. Ingenious review in any case.

And no chimaera is hardly from Finland. And yes Scar Symmetry is still the lamest band i´ve heard in the ´00s. Linkin Park included.