"Lunatic Soul is the brainchild of Mariusz Duda, lead singer and bass player of progressive band Riverside. II is the second and last chapter of their intimate musical journey through the afterlife begun back in 2008 with the self-titled debut album. And don’t be misled by the harmonious whiteness of the album sleeve: the tone remains as dark, melancholic and forlorn as in the 2008 ‘black’ album.
Highly reminiscent of the innermost moments of Opeth, Antimatter and, of course, Riverside, Lunatic Soul’s second effort is a fascinating piece of work. However, I have two major problems with this album, which prevent me from rating it higher than this. First, it is a slightly uneven and intermittent album: it offers 4-5 great musical moments discontinued by an equal number of rather uninspired passages. Secondly, the fascinating ideas it proposes are developed too slowly and through excessive repetition. The duo “ Limbo – Escape from ParadIce ” is a good example of what I dislike about this album: put in the middle of the album, these two songs drag for about 6 minutes altogether (which is about 15% of the album) without offering any truly remarkable moment.
But, as I wrote above, the album contains some great songs: Asoulum starts off with a minimalistic guitar riff and an eerie vocal melody before opening up into a beautiful chorus with emotional vocal harmonies sustained by a nice synth work. Transition , which is probably the best song on the album, gains momentum only after 3 sluggish minutes of ambience and background noises: it then grows into a groovy, bitter and highly emotional lament which brings to mind some of the Patterson-era Anathema. Gravestone Hill is a dark intermezzo with acoustic guitars and beautiful vocal melodies and harmonies. Wanderings is an unexpected, lighter ending to the album: here Duda treats us with some beautiful Dave Gahan-like vocal melodies supported by an intriguing web of loops and percussions. A welcomed breath of fresh air after about 45mins of acoustic intimacy and lethargic atmospheres.
Overall, this is a very good album – and you will probably love it if you are a fan of any of the bands mentioned above. Personally, I know that this album will keep me coming back to it - but I also know that I will be back for the goodies (Asoulum, Transition, Wanderings) and I will almost certainly skip the rest."
