Photo Credit: Edward Cooke
Royal Blood are back, everybody! After 2023’s less-than-stellar fourth record, Back to the Water Below, it seems the Worthing-based duo went back to the drawing board for album number five: Dead Company. While that last outing felt like a band going through the motions and only half-heartedly tinkering with their sound, the riffs are front and centre once more.
If we could sum this album up in one word, it’d be “bombastic”. Gone are the plodding piano ballads, and everything’s turned up to 11 from the get-go, as the title track, Dead Company, opens the record with some explosive drumming courtesy of Ben Thatcher. Ten Over Ten has some very Sabbath-y riffs urging it along, while Swallow the Bomb is lively and energetic throughout thanks to Mike Kerr’s modulated basslines backed by the pounding drums. It’s still faintly ridiculous that this much racket comes from just two people.
Despite the occasional dip from gallop to trot, Kerr and Thatcher still deliver: Nowhere All Along is a mid-tempo romper fit for a film’s end credits, while Take Em All harks back to the Typhoons era, with its catchy chorus and the odd synth. Elsewhere, Ride serves up killer licks reminiscent of the twin-lead riffing of the NWOBHM age. Kerr’s vocals are business as usual, which is no bad thing. The appeal of Royal Blood has always lived in the instrumentation, and it’s the riffs and rhythms that stick in your head here, not the lyrics.
That’s not to say that the record only ever goes full throttle or eases under the speed limit: sometimes it straddles the line between the two. Rear View Mirror pairs some very Muse-sounding drumming (Time Is Running Out, anyone?) with a cool, descending riff in the intro and steady, fuzzy verses, before the choruses quickly catch up with the other speedy tracks on offer. Meanwhile, recent single Mother Never Told You has a constant, pounding backbeat that makes it the perfect soundtrack to an action-film car chase. Not everything leaves a mark, mind: Tapping Out is decent enough but nothing to write home about, even if it slots neatly into the flow of the record.
Dead Company does have an ace up its sleeve, though: The Closer. Aptly named, as it closes out the album, this is a James Bond theme tune if we’ve ever heard one. From the intro keys and the slower pace to the tremolo-effect basslines in the verses, and even the War Pigs-esque ending, it’s one of the best tracks the duo have put out in recent memory.
So, in short, Royal Blood have absolutely smashed it with Dead Company. It’s a thunderous record that grabs you from the first note, only stepping off the throttle every so often for you to catch your breath before ramping up again. A much-needed improvement on that last album. Cheers, lads, you did good.
9.5/10
Standout Tracks: Dead Company, Swallow the Bomb, Mother Never Told You, Rear View Mirror, The Closer
For Fans Of: Muse, The White Stripes, Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures
Written by: Florin Petrut
