Album Review: Royal Blood - 'Dead Company'
Boisterous and exhaustive, ‘Dead Company’ is a vintage, aged and violent version of one of modern rock’s monoliths.
After a slight hiatus in an otherwise relentless career of releases, rock and roll titans Royal Blood have returned with a spectacular new project. While fresh, ‘Dead Company’ still contains the notes of bourbon and beaten leather jackets of the debut and second albums of days gone by. Ironclad and full throttle, this album is littered with foundational and integral riffs that utterly refuse to relent, moving at a breakneck speed from start to finish; the very essence of this album is incendiary and acts as a brilliant return to home base for this Brighton-based power duo. Its ten-track run hangs around in the air without overstaying its welcome, making for an exhilarating project that lets loose with classic time changes, concussive blasts of bass notes and arguably one of heavy rock’s greatest, most distinct voices to date.
Like a petrified horse, ‘Dead Company’ starts with its title track, immediately thumping waves of aggression and virility straight through the airwaves; this sound is affluent in both precision and sheer force, a theme that becomes ever-present the more the album runs on. The first half of this album is a complete blitzkrieg. It remains both sharp and well structure while still having an air of bull in a china shop chaos to it. While Royal Blood is often somewhat surface-level in terms of rock accessibility, this album does not wane or relent in pushing the limits of what some of its more moderate and put-together fans may be used to. The air of comfort and predictability is stripped away completely with some of these tracks, making for something not dissimilar from Queens of the Stone Age or Twisted Sister. Both ’Swallow the Bomb’ and ’Never Told You’ allow for a lot of side A’s musical barrage, slightly renovating that classic thuggish and fast sound they’re so well known for. This sense of vague familiarity is so powerful for this project, as it sits in that sweet spot between testing boundaries and immediately securing your attention, which allows the tracklist a lot of time to breathe. This feeling is also very similar for the slower tracks littered throughout this opening half. Tracks like ’10 Over 10’ and ‘Nowhere All Along’ take that well-versed sound and simply stretch it a little further, letting some really creative and thorough riffs and compositions seep through.
The second half of the album leans slightly into a real accentuation of the vocal style of now-fortified rock icon Mike Kerr, easing off the gas pedal and instead working for more groove-heavy and dexterous articulation on tracks like ’Take Em All’ and the back half of ’Tapping Out’. This easing of violent notation really allows the drumming to breathe and shine through on this track. Royal Blood have become just as well known for Mike’s unreal vocals as they have Ben’s absolutely otherworldly talent for beating the life out of some of the most intricate and varied drum kits. This is a sound that has been crafted over time and stands out in a line-up without second thought. All of this slowing in momentum is further halted in dramatic fashion for the final track of the album, aptly titled ‘The Closer’. This song is a dramatic anthem, tone-rich and pure brilliance. Putting the instrumentation at the forefront of this track, accompanied by the swelling drone of backing whine, makes for something both daunting and tantalising; this track feels as though it’s intruding on you while remaining comfortably impactful. The culmination of this album really resides in this final track; it carries so much pressure but does so emphatically. ’The Closer’ may go down as one of the best final tracks on a project not just for the band but the genre, making for the perfect bookend to this return to proficient and unwavering excellence for the band.
Royal Blood set out on tour in November in support of this new project, something that I’m sure swaths of fans up and down the country are ecstatic about. We can only hope that this new tour gets the cogs turning for even more shows, as their track record of relentless touring has hammered away at their skill sets and moulded them into two of the sharpest and intrinsically brilliant musicians in their own right. Seeing the almost intimidating presence of these tracks on stage will make for a truly special experience and is one that will definitely put them in contention for performance and album of the year nominations worldwide. If you are still reading, stop. Load up the album and headbang your way to your chiropractor; you’re going to need it.
Words by Josh Pook
