Royal Blood are veterans now.
It’s a slightly odd thought, given that it barely seems five minutes since Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher turned up and shocked everybody with that debut album, but it’s been twelve years. Twelve years since we all tried to work out how two blokes could make that much noise.
“Dead Company” is album number five, their first in three years, and they’re still very much the same band they always were. Just a little older and, perhaps, somewhat wiser.
You wouldn’t necessarily know about the older bit from the way the title track comes thundering out, mind you. This is a welcome back that isn’t waiting to be asked. They’ve lost none of their gift for choruses, either, and for all the force of the opening, it’s how quickly the song gets its hooks into you that really impresses.
Maybe the break has done them good, because “Swallow The Bomb” seems to be bursting with energy. There’s an eagerness about this stuff, a sense that they’ve remembered exactly how much fun they can have together, and it carries straight into “Ten Over Ten”.
“Got me on the threshold,” sings Kerr, and the threshold of something pretty special, it seems to me. Reinvigorated is the word that keeps coming to mind. There’s nothing tentative about any of this, and they sound like a band with plenty left to get out of their system.
There does, however, seem to be a touch more knowing anger in those primal urges these days. “Mother Never Told You” is a prime example. The attack is familiar, but there’s a little more weight behind it, as though the passing years have given them a few more reasons to make this racket.
“Nowhere All Along” has a similar pulse and fuzz to Muse, and then “Ride” gives us the chance to say something that has to appear at least once in any Royal Blood review: the guitar sound is incredible.
Yes, I know it’s a bass. It sounds like a guitar, though, and even after all this time, there’s something about what Kerr does with it that makes you stop and listen. Familiarity hasn’t dulled the impact of that sound.
On “Rear View Mirror”, it’s always “lies, lies, lies”, and perhaps that’s the world-weariness that comes with doing this for more than a decade. There’s a swagger to go with it, too. Whatever they’re getting off their chests, they haven’t forgotten how to make you move while they do it.
“Take Em All” offers a change of pace, psychedelic in places, and gives the record a different feel as it heads towards its finish. “Tapping Out”, meanwhile, is another reminder of just how good a Royal Blood chorus can be. They’ve made plenty of noise across these songs, but the choruses are what you take away with you.
“The Closer” finds Kerr singing, “It’s a long way down, but I’ll never leave you behind.” Maybe he’s talking about the band. Maybe the music. Either way, there’s something fitting about hearing it at the end of a record on which the pair sound so pleased to be doing this again.
It’s a long time since the shock value of Royal Blood sounding so different propelled them from pubs into arenas in seemingly the blink of an eye. What keeps them in the big venues now is the brilliant songs they still come armed with.
These 32 minutes are a prime example. Twelve years on, Royal Blood can still make it all feel exciting.
Rating 8/10
