Review THE RIVEN ‘Peace and Conflict’

The Riven hail from Sweden and have brought their remarkable debut album into the record stores in 2019. Now follows with ‘Peace and Conflict’ the second strike of the Swedes, who have grown to a quintet in the meantime. Is this noticeable on the new album? Absolutely, it allows a typical twin-guitar sound and also otherwise the musical options are further stretched.

Regardless of this, everything is the same as before with The Riven, which is good. Classic rock, united with the hardness of heavy metal, that’s what ‘Peace and Conflict’ is all about. Not to forget the powerful vocals of singer Totta Ekebergh who gives with her voice a partly psychedelic expression to the songs.

It starts with the galloping ‘On Time’. The start into the album could not be better, because what the band delivers here is rousing rock with speed and power. More complex and calmer is the title track, in which the mentioned, psychedelic expression comes to life. You almost get into a kind of trance without regretting it. As it becomes acoustic and rather Iberian with ‘La Puerta del Tiempo’, the listener stays in his comfort zone before the hard guitars of ‘Sorceress of the Sky’ bring back the rock’n’roll.

The Riven master the tension between loud classic rock and calmer sounds, a scheme that carries on with ‘On Top of Evil’ and ‘Fly Free’. It should be mentioned that ‘On Top of Evil’ starts softly, but then explodes and is garnished with a furious guitar solo.

With ‘Death’ The Riven has put more than just a random song at the end of the tracklist. With more than six minutes of length, the song is the longest on ‘Peace and Conflict’. And not only that, ‘Death’ is an emotional masterpiece that combines everything The Riven stands for.

With ‘Peace and Conflict’ The Riven have created an excellent sophomore album. From this band you can certainly expect one or the other in the future.