Kingcrimsonprog Progressive Poles Riverside have such a fine track record when it comes to top quality, album-of-the-year level studio albums. Their fourth album Anno Dommini High Definition for example, is arguably one of my favourite albums by any band, ever.

2015’s Love, Fear And The Time Machine; their third consecutive gold album and final output with guitarist Piotr Grundizinski (before his untimely passing), is no exception.

Their early works were dark and interesting, they then hit a phase of being bombastic, colourful and Deep Purple influenced. I saw them live during this period and it was such a rocking good time, you didn’t expect such good fun from a morbid bunch of proggers who usually released concept albums about psychiatric hospitals.

This sixth full-length studio record sees yet another evolution of their sound. It is cleaner, softer, with more prominent classic-‘70s-prog moments and a bit more of an unexpected The Cure influence. (That’s not to say it doesn’t rock out when it wants to, “Saturate Me” hits a delicious Tool-influenced groove in the middle, for example).

I regret, I have been sleeping on this album for a few years, I was hoping to time buying it for just before my next Riverside live show for maximum excitement overlap, but in 2020 with all the concerts dried up, its gotten a bit “well, what are you waiting for?” so I’ve finally taken the plunge, and I’m beyond glad I did. In hindsight, I don’t know how I ever coped without “Afloat” in my life, (a chilling tune, which out -Judgements Anathema).

Its hard to chose highlights, but if I was to introduce the band to a stranger, the number one pick of introductory track would be “Discard Your Fear.” If you like my wet trousered praise of this album, that would probably be the first track you should investigate to see if you’ll like the album as much as I do. It doesn’t really sound at all like typical Riverside fare, but as a singular one-off song, it just rubs me up in all the right ways. If you already like the band but have been sleeping on their later works as I had been, try out “Time Travellers” to see just how well Mariusz’s vocals have developed.

There is rarely such a thing as a flawless album, but I feel confident in saying that this beautiful, exciting, mellow, peaceful, energetic, diverse, interesting, tasteful bag of contradictions is a completely magical masterpiece.

Ps. [If you are unfamilair with the band but like bands such as Haken, Dream Theater, Opeth, Pain Of Salvation or even The Mars Volta then I highly recommend you check them out.]

The Crow Love, Fear and the Time Machine is maybe the most personal and controversial album of Riverside.

They showed here the most luminous and happy? side of their music, with some positivism that was not well receive amongst all their fans. But after some hearings most of the songs of this album start to dig deeper in your soul until you discover yourself hearing this record again and again. It's compelling, passionate and very well made. And it also contains some of the best lyrics of the band.

The overall sound of the album is also lighter, with cleaner guitars (lots of acoustics) and drums and not so heavy bass lines from Mariusz, who made his best vocal interpretation to date in my opinion here. Lyrically the title of the album is a good summary of what we can hear throughout the album, which is an exploration about the childhood's world where the origin of feelings like love, fear and friendship resides. Just beautiful!

And just like Shrine of New Generation Slaves was an homage to 70's music, this can be considered the same for 80's music, with even some The Cure gothic-sounding parts like #Addicted.

Best Tracks: Lost, #Addicted, Caterpillar and the Barbed Wire, Saturate Me, Discard your Fear.

Conclusion: if you are prepared to hear a slightly happier version of Riverside with a bit less of melancholy and desperation in their lyrics, then Love, Fear and The Time Machine is for you. Sadly, the overall quality of this album reaches not the level of their best works, but in my opinion was an improvement over (the also excellent) Shrine of New Generation Slaves and opened new and exciting horizons for the band.

Sadly, this was the last album that Piotr Grudzinski recorded with the band... We miss you, mate!!!

My rating: ****

P.S.: this review was originally written for ProgArchives.com

UMUR "Love, Fear and the Time Machine" is the 6th full-length studio album by Polish progressive rock act Riverside. The album was released through InsideOut Music in September 2015. It´s the successor to "Shrine of New Generation Slaves" from 2013. Riverside slowly evolved over the years from a progressive rock act with some metal leanings to a more fully progressive metal oriented act on their 4th full-length studio album "Anno Domini High Definition (2009)". On "Shrine of New Generation Slaves (2013)" they moved away from the metal influences again though, and that development continues on "Love, Fear and the Time Machine"...

...it´s actually their least metal tinged album up until now. There are still some relatively hard rocking sections featured on the album, and even a couple of sections which borders metal, but "Love, Fear and the Time Machine" is generally a very mellow and pleasant sounding release. Artists like Porcupine Tree and Gazpacho often come to mind, but by now Riverside have found their own sound within the world of slightly melancholic and atmospheric progressive rock. Mariusz Duda has a pleasant voice, which helps convey the message of the material well, but the band are generally well playing and deliver their parts with both passion and conviction. Interesting rhythms, melodic guitar/keyboards, and an organic sounding bass, are just some of the features which make up Riverside´s sound.

The material on the 10 track, 60:38 minutes long album is well written and quite catchy. While all tracks feature vers/chorus sections, which are easy to hum/sing along to, the tracks contain more than just that. The track structures always go beyond the basic vers/chorus structure, and while I wouldn´t characterize the material as complex, it´s still relatively adventurous. Add to that a warm and well sounding production, which suits the material perfectly, and we have yet another high quality Riverside release on our hands. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.