Ten years on and the electrifying energy of Royal Blood’s debut album remains as impactful as ever. Full of colossal riffs and battering ram rhythms matched by aa flair for instantly memorable songwriting, the all-or-nothing performances of ‘Figure It Out’, ‘Come On Over’, ‘Out Of The Black’, ‘Little Monster’ and ‘Ten Tonne Skeleton’ are still viscerally frenetic, and all those tracks remain staples of their live show to this day.

The ‘10th Anniversary Edition’ includes four b-sides from the era, including the deep cut fan favourites ‘One Trick Party’ and ‘Hole’, plus the previously unreleased ‘Sleeptalker’ and Tom Dalgety’s original mix of ‘Ten Tonne Skeleton’. It is completed by five live recordings from 2015, including three songs from their first main stage set at the Reading Festival.

Royal Blood today ignite an epic summer ahead as they announce the September 8th release of their fourth album ‘Back To The Water Below’ and share its lead single ‘Mountains At Midnight’.

From the very beginning, Royal Blood’s story has been one of two life-long friends whose shared passion and dedication for writing and performing has led them on a remarkable adventure together – a story that has yet to be repeated, and is a feat as rare as it is remarkable. Long before Royal Blood were even formed, they spent years together in various bands playing to half empty bars around Brighton - and only then did they suddenly become a decade-in-the-making overnight success story. One day they were plotting how to recoup the meagre £300 they had spent on their first recording, but within a year they were at the top of UK album charts, storming Glastonbury and winning the BRIT Award for Best British Group.

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: A regal return for Royal Blood, continuing their dominance of high-energy modern rock and roll, and bringing their most high octane outing to date. Fierce, bold and full of groove.

TRACK LISTING

1. Mountains At Midnight
2. Shiner In The Dark
3. Pull Me Through
4. The Firing Line
5. Tell Me When It’s Too Late
6. Triggers
7. How Many More Times
8. High Waters
9. There Goes My Cool
10. Waves

After two UK #1 albums, 2 million album sales and an array of international acclaim, you might’ve thought you knew what to expect from Royal Blood. Those preconceptions were shattered when they released ‘Trouble’s Coming’ last summer. Hitting a melting pot of fiery rock riffs and danceable beats, they delivered something fresh, unexpected and yet entirely in tune with what they’d forged their reputation with.

The reaction was phenomenal, with highlights including 20 million streams, a premiere as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record and a run on Radio 1’s A-list and earned alternative radio support and media attention across the globe. In short, Royal Blood are primed to be bigger than ever before. That feat is set to be realised when they release their eagerly anticipated third album ‘Typhoons’ on April 30th via Warner Records.

When Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher sat down to talk about making a new album, they knew what they wanted to achieve. It involved a conscious return to their roots, back when they had made music that was influenced by Daft Punk, Justice, and Philippe Zdar of Cassius. It also called for a similar back-to-basics approach to what had made their self-titled debut album so thrilling, visceral and original.

“We sort of stumbled on this sound, and it was immediately fun to play,” recalls Kerr. “That’s what sparked the creativity on the new album, the chasing of that feeling. It’s weird, though - if you think back to ‘Figure it Out’, it kind of contains the embryo of this album. We realised that we didn’t have to completely destroy what we’d created so far; we just had to shift it, change it. On paper, it’s a small reinvention. But when you hear it, it sounds so fresh.”

Those traits pulsate throughout the new single and title track. Kerr’s spiralling bass riff casts an hypnotic allure as it grows in intensity, while his vocals switch at will between a raw rock roar and a soulful falsetto. It’s underpinned by Thatcher’s thundering beats, his taut rhythms infused with groove-laden hi-hats.

After setting the tone with ‘Trouble’s Coming’, the album opens in breathless, take-no-prisoners style with the fierce metallic grooves of ‘Who Needs Friends’ hitting an early visceral peak. Royal Blood further reference their fresh array of influences by deploying vocodered vocals on ‘Million & One’ before dynamically switching between the biggest contrasts of their sound with ‘Limbo’. Already a fan favourite having been a regular during the duo’s 2019 shows, ‘Boilermaker’ lives up to its reputation and is more than matched by ‘Mad Visions’, which evokes a hyper-aggressive Prince. It ends with a final surprise in the shape of the stark piano ballad ‘All We Have Is Now’, a vulnerable and revealing reminder to live in the moment.

That song’s unguarded sentiments gives the album a redemptive finale. Whether directly or allusively, the album focuses on exploring the flipside of success that they’ve experienced. It comes from the realisation that success is much more complicated than it seems and that having the time to regain perspective is a precious commodity which becomes ever more elusive. The situation called for reflection and change, which Kerr addressed in Las Vegas. He downed an espresso martini and declared it to be his last drink, and soon discovered that his new-found sobriety would have a positive impact upon his creativity and life as a whole.

That new approach manifested itself in the duo’s decision to produce the majority of ‘Typhoons’ themselves. ‘Boilermaker’ was produced by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, the two bands having first connected when Royal Blood supported them on a huge North American tour. Meanwhile, the multiple Grammy Award winner Paul Epworth produced ‘Who Needs Friends’ and contributed additional production to ‘Trouble’s Coming’.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There's little doubt that Royal Blood have already made a huge splash in the music world, but it's nothing compared to the reception that awaits them for 'Typhoons'. Neatly encompassing everything that made them such a hit with their previous outing, but imbued with the fiery production of rock legend Josh Homme, there is little that can (or should) be done to stop Royal Blood from conquering the world.

TRACK LISTING

1. ‘Trouble’s Coming’
2. ‘Oblivion’
3. ‘Typhoons’
4. ‘Who Needs Friends’
5. ‘Million & One’
6. ‘Limbo’
7. ‘Either You Want It’
8. ‘Boilermaker’
9. ‘Mad Visions’
10. ‘Hold On’
11. ‘All We Have Is Now’

Encapsulating their ferocious, bluesy bass and drums groove, ‘Come On Over’ blisters with an immediate intensity that matches their recent breakthrough singles ‘Out of the Black’ and ‘Little Monster’.

The album is a mixture of anguished vocals, ferocious drumming and bass that provides intricate detail as well as a rumble of rhythm. Royal Blood are the result of a lineage that stretches from present day heroes Queens of the Stone Age to Led Zeppelin, and all the way back to early blues pioneers. Their ferocious attack is the result of just two men – vocalist/bassist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher.

TRACK LISTING

1. Out Of The Black
2. Come On Over
3. Figure It Out
4. You Can Be So Cruel
5. Blood Hands
6. Little Monster
7. Loose Change
8. Careless
9. Ten Tonne Skeleton
10. Better Strangers