Track By Tracks: The Shiver - Adeline (2019)

1. Awaiting:

A powerful lead guitar opens the album and brings you straight on a cliff overlooking the sea. It's afternoon, it's warm and sunny. A girl is walking on the path that comes from the town. She's all her life to live, she's young and happy, "long awaited day have come, life starts here...". But she doesn't know that her Fate has already been set. Her father will sacrifice her to the Gods, to have good luck in the war; she sais that she will forgive him anyway but she asks for mercy, in vain. This story is the cruel reality that could have occurred many times, and that you can find in the famous "Iphigenia in Aulis" written by Euripides. AncientGreeks were used to sacrifices and human sacrifices, specially if an Oracle was speaking. Women were often abused, killed, considered as they worth nothing, starting from the Ancient Societies (Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans). Before them, a matriarchal society existed and the Woman was adored like a Goddess. So how has it been possible to get here?

2. Adeline:

The title track sounds heavier then the rock sound of the first song. This tale is more painful, as it concerns a little girl of seven years old. In Northern Italy there's a Medieval Castle where you can go to have a tour. It's common to hear screams at night, or someone crying. Local people tell you the story of Adelina of Montebello, who was born albino. Her family and also the persons who were living in the castle was scared of her, and one day she went playing in the dungeon and never came out. She's still there, not dead, not alive, asking for help because she's lost and afraid. Probably someone drove by fear killed her withour mercy and hid the body.

3. Rejected:

An hypnotic bass groove introduces the only slow track of the album. This song is about Giulia Farnese. There are many versions of her story, and despite written witnesses of her absolute stunning beauty, there's no picture of her left. As a child, her marriage was already settled for political reasons, she was promised to the ugly Duke Orsini. But when she grew up, she's been noticed and conquered by the Pope Alessandro IV. She lived a big part of her life far from the husband, as a concubine of the Pope. A version of the tale says that Orsino Orsino imprisoned her in her Basanello Castle and immured her, so her Spirit is still wandering in the Castle, creating Poltergeists even nowdays. The historical reserch has pieced together her whole life and no worries, she has not been killed, but she had a long and rich life. But so... Who's infesting the Castle?

4. Wounds:

Guitar riffs bring your mind into a melancholic world for this rock song, the only one with personal lyrics. The track is about hurting each other, being in pain and linked at the same time, and confident that time will mend the wounds and everything will be fine even if the two souls are tore apart. I thing this sound came from my Placebo/Smashing Pumpkins background.

5. How Deep Is Your Heart, How Dirt Is Your Soul:

The piano and the guitar fit together to bring you inside the darkest track of the album, filled with pain and remorse. It talks about someone that is responsible of the killing of an innocent soul, knowing that this is gonna be on his conscience forever. He tried to hide his fault but it's too late and he's damned to eternal sorrow. I wrote it thinking about a specific happening but i am not going to tell you anything more. Let your mind wander and tell me what comes to you.

6. Light Minutes:

A Punk-ish track. This is the funniest to play live, as everybody jump and shout. We had the chance to test it in the latest tour, check out our Insta page (@theshiverband) to see what happened at Alkatraz, Milan or Koko, London. It's about the long distance between two soul that touched once: the separation is like gasping for air in deep space where there's no oxygen.

7. High:

I really love this one. I wrote it while I was composing "The Darkest Hour", our previous album, but at that time I could only complete the chorus. When composing "Adeline" I wrote the verses and the song was sounding great. They sound empty, like you're suspended in space, as we are still afar from Earth. It talks about an alien, forced in perpetuum exile in emptiness and silence, that finally lands on our planet, and he's full of joy for having found other living creatures, but he's treated like an enemy so he becomes evil and release its whole power. The last image is him, wandering again in Universe, alone.

8. Pray:

There's an ancient stone-house near the place I live. It's hidden in the wood. It must have been difficult to arrive there as it has been built in the canyon between two steep hills. The strange thing is that the building is divided in two, like the soil moved and separated it in two halves. There are local tales that call this "The Witches House". Studying some ancient documents, seems that there were lots of women in this land who were practicing Magic (the White one), but in XIV, XV and XV ICentury the Inquisition, strong in this territory (Reign of the Pope - I live near Rome in Central Italy), started many trials against women without husbands, with no sons, who were healers or who helped babies to get born. They used to burn them, and this song talks about one witch, who was a healer is her community. She's been betrayed and condamned to burn and she's full of hate, even when she becomes ashes, flying over the fire in the last notes of the track.

9. Miron-Aku:

I had some punk-hardcore stuff in my mind when I composed this song. It talks about a powerful witch that lived in Finland. During Nazism, Adolf Hitler founded a Special Department that was meant to find the secret of eternal life. They found out that this woman was three hundred years old and an Army was send to caught her, but when she felt the Nazis in the distance she launched a spell and killed them all without any mercy.

10. Electronoose:

This is an electronic track that I really enjoy playing live. The music intensity grows up and explodes in the chorus, like a noose that clutch your neck.

11. Light Minutes live @ Manchester Academy:

I have no words to describe the excitement of a massive live show, being one with the crowd. Your only option is coming to our next gig or watching the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky2PJEnvOVE (Recorded, mixed and mastered by Federico Telesca at West Homesick Recording Studio, Sheffield, UK - https://www.federicotelesca.co.uk/ Video shot and edited by Riccardo Cenci)