Review Summary: Royal Blood Review: Far more than just Drum & Bass
We needed Royal Blood. Sure, our world is ravaged by conflict spanning from The Crimea to Persia, but everyone needs an escape from reality. Until today, that outlet had vanished. Cliché though it may be, rock in standard tune was dead. As Black Sabbath plodded along an endless string of stadium sell-outs, Led Zeppelin continued to bicker over reunion hopes, while the supposed modern day saviour of the genre, Jack White, churned out tepid country rock for those in beige trousers.
As a musical entity, Royal Blood shouldn’t function. Stripped back to most primordial elements of four string bass and drum kit, the Brighton duo focus their two-pronged assault on the idea that sound amounts to more than the sum of its parts. The culmination of this mantra can be found on the opening track and lead single, ‘Out Of The Black’, where a drum and riff propelled with rifle-like precision leads to an intricate bridge and a stadium filler chorus.
Learning from the mistakes of two-pieces past such as Drenge and Deap Vally, Royal Blood are far more than mere instrumentalists. Suitably sexy with a whiff of mystery, Mike Kerr’s vocals operate on accessible melodies and dark underbellies. ‘Figure It Out’, opens a window to an obsessive relationship, while ‘Little Monster’ attempts to contain the LP’s most explosive chorus amid Kerr’s alpha male affirmation.
The constant struggle between bass, drums and vocals reaches equilibrium on ‘Blood Hands’, where sparse hi-hats battle with Kerr’s pirouetting vocal delivery in a mesmerizing culmination of their formula. As the album reaches its conclusion, creativity refuses to slow, ‘Careless’ channels late-era White Stripes, while ‘Ten Tonne Skeleton’s’ plodding riff thrills with dance-rock credibility.
Herein lies Royal Blood’s greatest achievement. By using the bass to to the edge of its capabilities, the Brighton duo have handed coolness to an instrument and genre that so many scoff, doing what Jimmy Page did for guitar in the 70’s and Daft Punk with samples two decades ago- creating a fantasy world for daydream musicians who want to escape reality.
