Released:
Rating:
Big massive rock songs that punch you in the face.
Label: Warner
Released: 16th June 2017
Rating: ★★★★
It’s safe to say that when Royal Blood released their first album in 2014 they very quickly became a massive band. Now it’s three years later and they’ve returned with the follow-up ‘How Did We Get So Dark?’. Singer/bassist Mike Kerr carries himself on this record with the self-assured swagger of a frontman who knows his stuff, and even though at times the lyrics have the emotional delicacy of a 15-year-old cracking a nut with a sledgehammer it’s clear that both him and band mate Ben Thatcher have grown as musicians from the very first notes of the QOTSA-esque title track.
Considering the two-piece dynamic of a band, they’ve come out with songs that sound so much larger. ‘I Only Lie When I Love You’ smoothly waltzes through with licks left right and centre and cowbell keeping them in line, ‘Look Like You Know’ is a fist pumper made for the biggest stages, whilst the previously released ‘Where Are You Now?’ has been redone and dialled up to become THE anthem that bands dream of writing. The album’s finest moment comes on ‘Hook, Line & Sinker’ with its opening riff the size of a black hole dragging you into what is surely one day to be considered a classic.
That being said, the album does drag at points – particularly on ‘She’s Creeping’ and ‘Don’t Tell’ – but let’s face it, no one expected Royal Blood to come back with an absolute game changer. What they have come back with is a great album that departs from their debut while holding on to what people love them for. Big massive rock songs that punch you in the face. Josh Williams
