RSM trace the shape of existence on the expansive ‘Life is…’

Progressive rock has always been at its most convincing when technical ambition serves a larger emotional purpose. And on their new album ‘Life is…’, Polish fusion-rock project RSM uses shifting metres, muscular ensemble playing and wide-ranging stylistic influences to examine the gradual, often bewildering passage of a human life.

Following 2021’s ‘NO!’, the group’s second full-length album emerged without a rigid narrative blueprint. Yet as composer and multi-instrumentalist Rafal Szewczyk assembled the final sequence, the songs began to reveal a natural progression from beginnings towards endings. That organic development suits a record concerned with existence itself. Life rarely follows a structure visible from the outset, as its patterns tend to emerge only when enough distance has been travelled.

RSM’s sound is built around the longstanding musical relationship between Szewczyk, bassist Marcin Blasiak and drummer Paweł Stepien. Their familiarity gives the album’s more elaborate passages a strong sense of movement. Odd time signatures and sudden changes in intensity never feel included merely to demonstrate ability. Here, they become part of the record’s emotional language, reflecting instability, uncertainty and the constant adjustment demanded by experience.

Among its clearest statements is ‘Are We All in Abuse’, a track that combines difficult subject matter with rhythmic intricacy. Its odd metres retain a genuine pulse, creating a restless physical momentum around the lyrics. The track demonstrates the band’s ability to make structural complexity feel immediate, with its shifting patterns intensifying the sense of pressure behind the words.

While ‘Chasing the Truth’ explores a more instrumental direction. Energetic and constantly moving, it reflects the album’s wider interest in searching without guaranteeing discovery. The musicians appear less concerned with arriving at a fixed resolution than with following each idea through its changing forms, allowing the journey itself to become the point.

Closing track ‘Life’ brings the record towards a more reflective conclusion. Its moodier character and contemplative words allow the album’s energy to subside without offering an artificially definitive answer.

Together, they have produced an album that is ambitious without becoming detached and technically accomplished without losing its human character. ‘Life is…’ doesn’t attempt to explain existence in seven easy steps. It observes its movement, contradictions and inevitable conclusion through music that is equally unwilling to remain in one place.

Thoughtful, substantial and confidently performed, it finds RSM creating their most mature statement so far; delivering an album that asks large questions while trusting us to remain inside the uncertainty.