“I commend anyone who can make it to the end, really. It’s pretty brutal,” Mike Kerr, Royal Blood singer.
Commendations are in the post, then. Dead Company is a brutal listen but not for the reasons Kerr had in mind. After Royal Blood’s previous album, Back to the Water Below, made less of a splash than the duo’s BBC Radio stage hissy fit, they went into a state of hibernation. They’re back with more noise as they chase, trying and failing, to capture the energy and spirit of both their debut album and their Foo Fighters influence. For the passing listener, they’ll forever be defined by an on-stage strop. But for those who enter Dead Company as active fans of the group, what is there that sets this apart from previous releases? A decade on and things haven’t changed. Heavy instrumental work with that pounding loudness perceived as a replacement for delicate, introspective lyrics. Some sense of purpose or escapism is the other route, and there’s a handful of moments within Dead Company that manage that, when they’re not trying to sound like Muse, that is.
Their title track is a promising opener. That attitude they displayed the last few years, while rubbing people the wrong way and never quite backed up with music worthy of such a disdain for gig attendees, works here. Dead Company prides itself on the heavy and moody buzz of heart-stopping thrills, and while it doesn’t always work (as second song, Swallow the Bomb, proves), there are spots of solid work here. Dead Company is filled with such platitudes, though for Royal Blood fans that won’t be a problem. Song after song of changing the day around with a desire to swallow this or fix that. Empty words and obvious conclusions show just how shortsighted Royal Blood have been on recent releases. But a thick layer of percussion and a wider instrumental sound fit for throwing yourself into other sweaty gig-goers is all the band wants from this record, or at least it sounds that way. What Kerr means by brutal is the sense of anguish for the modern world. But in admitting to the horrors he finds there’s nothing else to pursue.
It’s not hedonistic, but it verges on that don’t care, won’t care attitude that’s plaguing the world at present. Royal Blood makes music for those who see the listening experience solely as an escape from the world around them despite their beliefs, their values and outlook, informing that horrid feeling. Ten Over Ten is a miserable listen. Natural disasters and scientific entities thrown around as placeholders for what Kerr would do again, though there’s no indication of the action, the responsibility, or even the consequence beyond it being the wrong thing to do. Nowhere All Along has the duo making peace with “the cage around them,” but it’s hard to affect empathy from a listener when the bars appear to have been put in place by the band. Beyond the title track, it all blurs together and makes little, if any, difference.
No new perspective, a lack of fresh ideas, and this unfortunate belief that loud music is a free pass for lacking a message. Kerr writes with nothing but cliché in mind. Ride is the worst of the bunch here, an inarticulate and empty confession that notes burnout is a point of no return. It’s hard to give much good faith to Royal Blood as they appear to have changed little, if at all, since their last few albums. There’s nothing within Dead Company that will leave you wanting more. No amount of goodwill can be given to the duo here. Aggressively uninteresting work at the best of times with a title track that’ll inspire false hope. The sort of music that, a decade ago, would get a moody black and white music video set in both a local field and shopping centre. But that’s what Royal Blood operates with best of all, this moody nostalgia for a generation who sound uninterested in the world around them.
Royal Blood has been a shining star of the faux alternative scene for years now, and Dead Company is a reminder of just how hollow their sound is. The pangs of guitar on Rear View Mirror and this promise never to come down, from what isn’t particularly relevant to the band, is the sole message here. Take Em All cites taking risks and ignoring the warnings of the real world, and yet Royal Blood takes no risk artistically. This’ll fit into their discography. That same plodding noise they’ve always made and a lack of ambition to do more than the basics. Being a band with the audience in mind is no bad thing, but giving yourselves to them and that particular sound so relentlessly cuts off any opportunity to create a new style, to fashion a new message. Dead Company strikes as a touch pathetic at times. Royal Blood have nothing to say yet the belief they do. It creates an empty ego.
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