Warpriest “The Shores of the Black River” Song Breakdown

August 13th is the one year anniversary of the release of Warpriest’s “Dark Ages”. All week I am going to be doing a series of videos talking about the inspiration behind the songs. Today, it is about the song, “The Shores of the Black River”. You can view the video on YouTube, or on your favorite social media site.

Since it is the one year anniversary, we are doing a give away of the Dark Ages CD and some Warpriest swag. All you have to do to enter, is comment on one of the videos on YouTube, Instagram or Facebook. After all the videos are posted, a winner will be selected at random.

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The writing style was actually different for me in this song. A lot of times I come up with a riff and this was just more of a strumming riff and it was a little bit different, but I think it really works in the long run. You’ll also notice that there’s really not a chorus in the song. If anything, I would say the chorus is at the end, but musically it repeats a line that is in the solo part. It just brings it together and ties it into the end.

Welcome back. Today is the third day of going over the tracks on the Warpriest’s “Dark Ages” album on this one year anniversary. The third track is “The Shores of the Black River”. This track is probably one of the darker ones on the album.The song was originally written in August of 2013 and it sat for almost a year before I started working on it again, and delving more into the structure of the song.This track was one of the songs that I gave to Elis to sing, and at the time, I believe I either had a cold or allergies, and I was really struggling with singing. So I came to her and I gave her the song. I didn’t give her any groundwork of what I wanted or anything. I just said, “can you come up with something for this?” And so she did, and once again she came up with harmony, she did all the vocal treatments and everything. She did a great job with it.

For years I had the song sitting there and Elis really loved the recording. When I talked about doing it for the album, I wanted to update the sound. I wanted to redo the drums, I wanted to bring in a better tone. I think I had my new bass and I liked the sound I was getting from that. She really didn’t want me to touch the song, so I ended up just telling her, “just give me a chance”. So I re-recorded everything and brought it to her, and she was blown away with how much better it sounded.

The part where the song slows down and the guitar has this kind of low, humming kind of build up, till it gets to the solo part, was actually an accident. Where I think I had been recording and I had that much of the song written, and I just started playing something on guitar, and it just fit and worked and I kept it. It was one of those things that was like a happy accident. I really loved how it calms down in that part of the song and then slowly builds up, and has a deep, watery resonance to me. I feel like a lot of the guitars really evoke the theme of water, especially the ones with the flangers and the strumming and everything, I think just continued that theme of this water.

The lyrics really deal with the subject of depression and ultimately suicide and how there is a deception in believing that this can bring relief to our problems and our pains in life. I also feel like the song is trying to encourage people who are around those who are going through a really dark and horrible time in their life, to reach out and to try and help them. I feel like that element is in the last chorus of the song.

I do want to say that, personally, my wife and I have dealt with depression, sometimes even suicidal thoughts, and it is a struggle. I don’t take this subject lightly. I do say that if anybody out there is struggling with that, do know that there are people around you who care about you and there are people that you can reach out, and that you can reach out for help, and there is help, and there are better days ahead, that not to give up, but to keep on going.You’re stronger than you think you are.

I just want to mention that if you comment under this video, whether it be on YouTube, Instagram or Facebook, you will be entered to win a free copy of this CD the “Dark Ages”. At the end of this series, I will randomly pick a winner from all the comments. So until then, talk to you later.