RIOTGOD-Invisible Empire cd


For their second album, Monster Magnet offshoot Riotgod move their sound onwards, this is a record that is crisper, tighter and more assured than their 2010 self-titled debut.
In terms of songwriting, the four-piece doesn’t stray too far from the straightforward,
well structured verses and choruses, they presented the first time around. These new songs however have more depth and over all, the record is filled with more diversity.
The album kicks off with “Breed,” and that sets a tone of classic heavy rock homage that the rest of the songs bear out, both riff-wise and in Sunshine’s vocals.
While the guitars lay down most of the groundwork, it is Mark Sunshine’s vocal performance that prove most pleasing on the ears, this guy has one hell of a voice.
The menacing “Crossfade” has elements of Grunge, but then Riotgod will surprise you with an almost Whitesnake feel to “Slow death” but then “Fool”, and “Tomorrow’s Today” bring you back to heavy rock, with a nod to Alice in chains.
Put all this in the mixing pot, and the stand out track from this album is “Firebrand” combining all of the above into a swaggering monster.
It must have been hard for the rhythm section to avoid sounding like Monster Magnet, but they do it well enough to allow this band to stand on its own, without to much reliance on Monster Magnet fans being the only consumers, hopefully this will appeal to a wider audience, I like it.
8/10
Tracklist
01. Breed
02. Fool
03. Crossfade
04. Slow Death
05. Firebrand
06. Gas Station Roses
07. Tomorrow’s Today
08. Saving It Up
09. Loosily Bound
10. Lost
11. Hollow Mirror
12. Rebirth
RIOTGOD on the web

About David Farrell

General Manager and 'THE' competition guy at planetmosh.com. Manager of The Goddanm Electric www.thegde.co.uk, Tour manager for Serpentine, and ex-general Dogsbody at Hammerfest.co.uk. Media partner to numerous bands. Also takes photos, writes reviews and likes classic rock, with a touch of thrash to get the blood flowing.