With RIVERSIDE’s new album, and sixth overall, the Warsaw, Poland-based band continues to apply a kind of numerology to their releases: after the "Reality Dream Trilogy" of their first three albums, where each album had three words in the title, the fourth was titled "Anno Domini High Definition" and the fifth called "Shrine of New Generation Slaves.” Now comes ‘Love, Fear and the Time Machine,’ an album which yet again showcases a different musical face of RIVERSIDE.



After the successes of the more metal-sounding "Anno Domini High Definition" and the more hard rock "S.O.N.G.S.", (which entered the national sales charts of several countries upon release as follows: Germany: # 33, Poland: # 2, The Netherlands: # 28, The Netherlands (Alternative Charts): # 9, Switzerland: # 51, UK (Rock Charts): # 24, Finland: # 41, France (Top 200): # 194, USA (Billboard New Artists Chart): # 18), the band are continuing their musical journey on an album that brings to mind a more mature version of "Out Of Myself", their debut release. In a way, they are returning to their roots but in a completely different form. “Love, Fear and the Time Machine” is a summary of their musical journey so far and an opening to a brand new chapter in their career.



Mariusz Duda says, "From 'Second Life Syndrome' we have been more and more immersed in darkness and screaming. Our more recent release, even though more mellow, also had a lot of blackness and sadness about it. With the new release we're opening ourselves up to brighter sounds. Despite the huge dose of melancholy, there is a new space, the songs are arranged with more flow and at the same time they have never been so concise and to the point before. But, most importantly, we're continuing to explore melodies. I have always wanted to record an album with a lot of great, ambitious songs. And I think that everyone who knows us has also wished that RIVERSIDE would record such an album. So we have (laughs). Ladies and Gentlemen, the brand new RIVERSIDE album is here to make your dreams come true, although we wouldn't be ourselves if we didn't serve it in a bit controversial form."



"Love, Fear..." is over an hour long and consists of 10 compositions which are some of the most melodic in the band's career. They have abandoned the foundations of their previous approach towards composing: there are no 12-15-minute songs here any more. The tracks are shorter, relatively speaking (6 minutes on average), and very richly arranged. The style has also undergone a facelift: keyboards are pushed into the background with the focus shifted to the rhythm section and guitars. But the most notable change is the new, more mellow and melodious voice of Mariusz, who comments, "I wanted to combine the ‘70s and the ‘80s. The ‘80s were a decade of musical growing up for me. I am from the generation who listened to magnetic tapes, not to the crackly vinyl, I remember being enchanted by music based on a lot of bass, chorus and all kinds of reverbs. On the new album we don't sound as retro and ‘70s as before, we moved forward. We sort of demolished the previous foundations and built new ones. I've made the decision to base everything on the rhythm section and solid vocal, guitar and bass melodies. But most of all, I wanted there to be more light and hope. I wanted to include a note of optimism and a willingness to change for the better.”



About the lyrical concept for the new album, Mariusz adds, "The lyrics on ‘Love, Fear and the Time Machine’ talk about a transformation. About making an important, perhaps life-changing, decision everyone has to make at some point in their lives. What happens to us when we have to make it? On the one hand we're excited by the change, we feel free, liberated, excited, and on the other we fear the unknown, we are afraid of what might happen to us. We go back in time and we go forward in time in our heads. All of that happens when we have to decide something important. The process of making such a decision is interesting as well. We are jumping into a time machine where on the one side of the steering wheel we have a lever that says ‘love’ and on the other side one that says ‘fear.’ We start the engine and the process begins. This is what the new album is all about: making decisions which are going to seriously change our lives. We would like the album to be one of those that becomes your best friend, which is why the lyrics have to have a certain depth to them.”



Mariusz concludes his comments on the new album by explaining, "The first song on the album is called 'Lost', the last one, 'Found'. If we sometimes get lost in life, it is to go through something and be found again on the other side, to be reborn as someone better and more valuable. I would like, and I hope this happens, that people keep smiling after they've heard this album."



With "Love, Fear and the Time Machine", which was once again produced at Serakos studio in Warsaw with Magda Srzednicka / Robert Srzednicki and comes with suitably atmospheric artwork by Travis Smith (Opeth, Katatonia, Psychotic Waltz, etc.), RIVERSIDE are finding themselves again, creating a new quality in music and proving that they're still a band with a lot to say…