SHRINE OF NEW GENERATION SLAVES

Riverside is a band that always have two reactions from the audience, love or hate. Just a few people stay in the middle of the road. I'm a Riverside fan. They're one of the few bands that I actually have all of the albums including two special editions.

It's been 4 years since Anno Domini High Definition (2009), their last studio album, was released and Shrine Of New Generation Slaves (2013) is the name of the new album.

With the same line up as always: Mariusz Duda (vocals, bass, acoustic guitars and ukulele), Piotr Grudziński (guitars), Piotr Kozieradzki (drums) and Michał Łapaj (keyboards). The album was recorded, mixed and mastered at Serakos Studio in Poland between March and October 2012 and was produced by the band together with Magda and Robert Srzedniccy. The band often refers to the album as SONGS (the short version of the album's name). If it was intentional or not I cannot say. What I can say is that SONGS turned out to be the best album by the Riverside so far.

In the beginning of the composition process they said that this album would be different from the previous one, and that's true. Shrine Of New Generation Slaves (2013) is different but with all the band's elements included.

The opening track 'New Generation Slave' has a Hard Rock feeling mixed with a Blues sentiment to it. You can also feel that the band went back to the 70's sound in terms of guitar distortions. It's heavy, but not in the Metal way. In fact, the overall sound on SONGS is just perfect. Basses, guitars, drums and keyboards with the best tones possible, everything ending in the great songs.

'The Depth Of Self-Delusion' begins and I realize once again how good Mariusz Duda voice is. Clean and full of emotion. The first single 'Celebrity Touch' is a heavy brick on the window! Fast and heavy riff with Hammond Organ, the cherry on the cake. And then the trip continues through the beautiful piano and melody of 'We Got Used To Us', the 'modern-retro' beat of 'Feel Like Falling', and the space feeling in 'Deprived'. The longest song on the album is 'Escalator Shrine', and you gotta love the bass lines of Mariusz, always clever and out of the common place that the bass found itself in the last years of Prog Rock. This track is also the most Pink Floydish in SONGS, mainly because of the good Michał's keyboards.

To finish the album there is a short 'Coda'. Just acoustic guitars, vocals and keyboards with the melody of the first track. Perfect ending to the possible best album of 2013.