Riverside, the progressive rock revelation of 2004, were CD of the month and even CD of the year in a lot of magazines and on a lot of progressive web sites. They were the revelation of Progpower Europe in 2004 and stole a lot of hearts during their tour in the spring of 2005.

Riverside already released their debut album in their country in 2003. It was re-released in 2004 by The Laser’s Edge. So they didn’t really have some new stuff to go on tour. Waiting for the new album would take too long, so they found an intermediate solution by releasing a fan club album, only available on their tour or on their website. The CD is called “Voices in my Head”, which is also the name of their fan club and the opening line for the track “Out of Myself”.

The 5 new tracks are all very quiet, very relaxing and mostly acoustic. Mariusz is only accompanied by an acoustic guitar and strings during “Us”, the first track. The first minute of “Acronym Love” is only supported by a piano but after a minute everyone comes to help to launch a superb ballad. “Dna ts Rednum or F. Raf”, what a title, is the only track with some heavier music, but it all stays very laid back. On this third track, we find the Riverside as we know them from their first album. Mystical, psychedelic, Porcupine Tree, Anathema,… The progmetal influences, which were present on “Out of Myself”, are all gone. They already announced their next album for the end of 2005 and they promised it would contain a lot more progmetal again. On “Stuck Between”, there’s even some ambient music lurking round the corner.

Mariusz voice is perfect for this quiet music. His voice forms a perfect blend with the acoustic instruments and this quiet music. The other musicians are doing their job perfectly, always giving the necessary touches to the music without ever showing off.

I would almost call this album Riverside’s “Damnation”, yes, the quiet Opeth album, but it’s not really that quiet. Maybe Porcupine Tree would be more appropriate with their quiet pieces and their sudden outbursts of energy. And if you think it’s all too quiet, they added three live tracks from the first album, recorded on May 15th 2004 at the Traffic Club in Warsaw. The live tracks aren’t just live versions of the album tracks but the band gives some new versions of these songs, which should be done more often by other bands. The total length of this CD is only 36 minutes, but I couldn’t care less, because every minute is worth two.