The Riven
Release Date: March 1, 2019
The Riven is a band that I had been hearing a good bit about in the Swedish rock scene lately and I was really looking forward to hearing what this band had to offer. Their self-titled debut album on The Sign Records was released on March 1st of this year so I was falling behind on my reviews and eagerly put this one on. Upon listening to the first song on the album, “The Serpent,” I found myself digging it… until about 1.5 minutes in. The song sounded so linear with little to no dynamics which made 3:31 seconds feel way longer than it was.
The same thing with “Far Beyond” and “Edge of Time.” Both songs started out promising but didn’t do anything to wow me or to even show me that there was any kind of diversity to the writing. Both songs, like the first, were just the same tempo all the way through and even as strong a singer as Totta Ekebergh may be, her vocals seem to lack any kind of emotion or connection to the songs. Just in listening to these songs she almost sounds as if she’s not even present in the moment but somewhere else far away.
There wasn’t a single song on The Riven’s debut album that blew me away or even remotely had me feeling anything. I literally felt like I was listening to a vocalist auditioning for a band that doesn’t have very good songs. To sum things up, The Riven is another forgettable band and one of the most un-interesting bands I have heard in a long time.
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