royal blood tour review

Who knew two blokes could make this much noise? — Royal Blood thrash the O2 Apollo

Safe to say there was more than 'nine people' who liked rock music this time around.

Royal Blood’s 2023 has been defined by two things: releasing yet another brilliant record in their fourth studio album, Back to the Water Below , and p*ssing off an entire crowd at Radio 1’s Big Weekend, not to mention even more people watching back home with their viral antics.

With that in mind, we weren’t exactly sure how we were going to feel or what this audience was going to be like before we stepped foot inside the O2 Apollo , but we can confirm the whole storm in a teacup has now well and truly blown over and we didn’t care one bit once they started playing.

The second we heard Mike Kerr’s bass being ripped like both rhythm and lead guitar at the same time, and the pure ‘oomph’ of Ben Thatcher’s unmistakable drum-playing, we completely forgot that they slightly upset the music world just a few months ago and remembered one thing: they’re rockstars and we’ve seen plenty worse.

This was the story of Royal Blood ’s return to Manchester and their gig at the legendary venue on Friday night as Storm Babet hit the region — and it was fitting really, given that their set featured ‘Typhoons’, ‘Trouble’s Coming’ and lyrics like “crashed down in a hurricane” in ‘Ten Tonne Skeleton’.

Even before we knew what we were in for, the surprisingly dramatic duo delivered a proper entrance, walking out to the iconic theme from The Good , The Bad and The Ugly , which was then followed up by an impressive light show that we’ll admit caught us by surprise and really did something epic to the atmosphere throughout.

It didn’t take long for fans to get off their feet as they kicked the show off with recent single and album opener, ‘Mountains at Midnight’, before the pits started opening up as they got stuck into fan favourites such as ‘Boilermaker’, ‘Loose Change’, ‘How Did We Get So Dark?’, ‘Out of the Black’ and so on.

It’s been a while since we’ve been to a proper rager at the Apollo, so we’re glad that the place is still more than capable of whipping up frenzies like that. We were concerned that there wasn’t much movement during the support act but that’s always the gamble you make with the warm-ups.

That’s not to say we didn’t enjoy them, by the way; Hot Wax were more than a pleasant surprise with arguably more overall energy on stage than the main event. Although it was clear the vast majority of the crowd were unaware of them prior to the gig, you’d be a fool to not go away and listen to more.

With plenty of frenetic on-stage presence and more than enough confidence to remind you they’d be having just as much fun if the crowd wasn’t there, they felt plenty post-punk, a bit funk thanks to the basslines and modern enough thanks to some more intricate strum that made sure they didn’t feel like an old hat throwback.

In a word, they were great; we liked them a lot and it didn’t take long for us to realise why they were a good fit to support Royal Blood , boasting the same ability to go big with their sound using just three instruments as Mike and Ben do with just two.

And that summed up the night as a whole, to be honest: a total of five musicians (six if you include the headliner’s session player who dipped in on a fair few songs) making a frankly ridiculous amount of noise between them — far more than a trio and just a pair of blokes should feasibly be able to make.

That’s the one thing that, regardless of whatever you think of them post-controversy, has always stunned us about Royal Blood. How do a frontman whose main instrument is a bass guitar and just one drummer make such explosive sounds between them and get people like thrashing like they were a full-fledged five-piece rock band?

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One thing’s for sure, they are well and truly in their ‘rockstar’ era right now, whether you like what comes with that or not. Mike might be four years sober now, with both he and Ben looking more svelte and stylish on stage — not only physically but in their overall presence — but they now look and feel like graduated performers who can command a crowd with a lot more authority than they did when they burst onto the scene with their debut in 2014.

And perhaps that’s why the Big Weekend moment went the way it did; these two are seasoned pros now and have earned a lot of plaudits in the genre over the past decade, so to find yourself playing to nearly 80,000 people who were mainly there to see pop acts probably felt like a loss of control and their frustration came out in the wrong way — even they’ve admitted that .

But that wasn’t the case at the Apollo. As the gig reached its crescendo with ‘Figure It Out’ and Ben stood atop a speaker and began conducting the crowd before jumping into it and preparing them for one last mosh as Mike kept the riff going, it was clear they were back in control and the audience in the palm of their hands.

Now that’s how you get people back on-side: by simply going out there, making a big old racket and leaving the gig-goers to do the rest. We all know there’s no place that guarantees that more than right here in Manchester.

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Featured Images — The Manc Group

Stockport indie stars Blossoms have announced a special affordable bus service to help get fans to and from their own massive Wythenshawe Park gig this summer.

And in typical Blossoms fashion, they did it with a funny little video starring none other than themselves.

Announcing the limited bus service exclusively for their massive day-long mini-festival at Wythenshawe Park, following in the footsteps of Noel Gallagher who debuted the field as the latest live music venue last year, the Blossoms boys are helping natives from their hometown keep travel arrangements simple.

Working in partnership with the Bee Network, the dedicated service will run exclusively from the recently opened Stockport Interchange and take fans all the way to the Moor Road stop outside Wythenshawe Park , with buses running all the way up until the early hours.

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As lead guitarist Josh Dewhurst and piano player Myles Kellock explain in the comical clip, the bright yellow buses will run from Stockport Interchange to the venue at least every six minutes from 4-8pm on the day of the gig.

As for the trip back, the same six-minute service will be taking giggoers from Moor Road back to Stockport town centre between 10pm and 1am. Better still, the journey is a short but sweet 20 minutes.

As the bus driver says (no, he’s not fully qualified), tickets will cost you just £3 for a single or £6 for a return, and they’re also pay-as-you-board meaning there’s no need to panic over pre-booking.

If you’re a Blossoms fan it’s about to be the best and most stress-free bank holiday weekend you could have possibly hoped for.

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With two new singles out, the new record Gary (best album name ever) now announced and a music video featuring Sean Dyche that we simply cannot stop watching, 2024 really is shaping up to be the year of the Blossoms.

Better yet, with a full day of music featuring other big names like Inhaler, Shed Seven, The K’s and more, anyone going along to their landmark Wythenshawe show is in for a massive music moment they’ll remember for years to come.

You can still try and grab tickets HERE .

The Stopfordians aren’t the only ones playing the park this year either, as another iconic Manc name is set to grace the grass with their presence.

Massive homecoming New Order gig announced at Wythenshawe Park

Featured Images — Blossoms (supplied)

Manc takeaway heavyweights Burgerism have just delivered some of the best pre-Parklife news we’ve heard yet: they’re getting ready to fix the hangover before you are.

That’s right, Burgerism is launching a limited edition ‘Hangover Cure’ box just in time for Parklife 2024, meaning that your post-festival recovery meal is already sorted.

With tens of thousands of punters set to descend on Heaton Park this weekend (8-9 June), you can bank on there being a fair few sore heads afterwards, and rightly so – you haven’t done it properly, otherwise.

But thankfully, the Salford -born burger masters have put together the perfect meal deal to help you bounce back the morning after and we kind of wish we could just get this offer every weekend now, to be completely honest.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Burgerism (@burgerism)

Available for one weekend only, this appetising hangover deal includes one of Burgerism’s delicious smashed burgers (the Cheesed, Beefed or Baconed), fries, a Burgerism sauce dip and a fun little ‘do not disturb’ door hanger.

That’s the most important part we feel.

‘The Hangover Cure’ bundle will cost you just £9.95 and will be available from Friday, 7 June to Monday 10 June. Sorted.

You can order delivery from Burgerism’s dedicated Manchester Delivery Kitchen via Uber Eats but the offer will also be available for collection only from their Salford, Denton and Gatley sites.

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We spent much of last week stuffing our faces with their previous limited-edition crossover at Nell’s Pizza and we would feel guilty about the calories if it wasn’t so delicious, and no, we’re not going to feel guilty about doubling up on Burgerism after Parklife either.

Stocking up on food and drink is often overlooked when it comes to festivals full stop, so we’re glad that someone’s looking after us. Thanks, Burgerism.

Organisers are even going to be handing out free Maccies on the day , so the good news just keeps coming.

Here’s all the important info ahead of Manchester’s biggest music festival.

Parklife 2024 – line-up, tickets, times, travel and everything you need to know

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Royal Blood review, Glastonbury 2023: Rock duo’s chest-puffing doesn’t make up for these riskless songs

After mike kerr caused an international incident with his outburst at big weekend, he and drummer ben thatcher struggle to inspire devotion with their hefty riffs and shallow mantras, article bookmarked.

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Sandwiched between a surprise Foo Fighters set and headliners Arctic Monkeys, Royal Blood take to the Pyramid stage on Friday night in second billing – a milestone, or stumbling block, for any great band. But the stakes are higher still for the West Sussex duo, as they emerge from an international incident at Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Dundee, when singer Mike Kerr lashed out at a “pathetic” crowd that failed to appreciate their rock bona fides , before flouncing off stage with middle fingers raised.

The vainglorious outburst was rooted in the authenticity fetishism that is at the heart of every argument about rock’s supremacy, which explains its intrigue, and hilariousness, to a streaming-era audience that is broadly not factional and genre-agnostic. Then again, in an age of asinine, media-friendly posturing, it was so uncalculated as to be almost admirable – a rare case of a band whipping up a PR storm, in these enlightened times, not by patronising pop-star women or consorting with far-right provocateurs, but through the old-fashioned medium of being a bit of a dick.

Though they don’t mention the incident, Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher – who are joined by keyboardist Darren Watts – seem intent on correcting the narrative with a crowd-pleasing display of rock showmanship. After opener “Out of the Black”, Thatcher strides from the kit in his Arctic Monkeys T-shirt and pounces to the front of the stage, waving his arms to amp fans: this, their enthusiasm suggests, is a real crowd for their real rock music.

But their chest-puffing never quite connects. As much as Royal Blood emulate the rock archetype, stalking across the stage and casting out stares heavy with import, their riskless songs inspire no devotion. Where you might expect scenes of adrenalised bacchanalia, tightly packed fans bob politely, like encouraging parents at a battle of the bands.

Thatcher eventually stands on his kit and gestures to open a mosh pit in the crowd, who acquiesce. The diehards remain engaged for a few songs, but the pit quickly shrinks to more of a mosh puddle. Royal Blood exploit the same reserves of Queens of the Stone Age brawn that have equipped Arctic Monkeys and Muse for world-slaying rock/pop crossovers. But where those bands’ charismatic frontmen subvert machismo with witty, submissive lyrics and flamboyant performances, the duo’s hefty riffs, devil-horns showmanship and shallow mantras lack the introspection needed to show what makes the macho impulse interesting. Kerr is the crowd-pleasing Rod Stewart to Alex Turner’s freewheeling Elvis Costello, the Dan Auerbach to his Jack White – a sort of control group against which riskier artistry can be measured.

Still, the set hits all its marks, the waves of distortion almighty, the choruses catchy and Kerr’s widdly bass riffs sufficiently virtuosic to satisfy the metal heads. During closer “Figure It Out”, when he switches from plucking the riff to tapping it one-handed while raising his fingers in the air, you believe, for a moment, that there is life in the old cliches yet. But it is impossible to imagine them, in future years, rising to the challenge of shooting up the festival bill. Perhaps Kerr’s outburst, during Big Weekend, bubbled up from a painful realisation about Royal Blood’s own place in the landscape. The worry is not that they were cheapened by association with the casual crowd and wilfully throwaway pop, but that it is precisely where Royal Blood’s people-pleasing, flat-pack anthems belong.

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PHOTO REVIEW: Royal Blood’s Unforgettable Concert At Amsterdam’s Paradiso

Thunderous rhythms and electrifying anticipation filled the air at Amsterdam’s legendary Paradiso. Amidst the iconic venue’s historic walls, a storm of rock ‘n’ roll was about to descend upon the eager crowd. This was the moment when Royal Blood , the dynamic duo hailed for their explosive sound and magnetic stage presence, would unleash their sonic majesty and captivate the hearts of all in attendance. From the very first chord, Paradiso would bear witness to a concert experience that transcended boundaries and left an indelible mark on the souls of those fortunate enough to be part of this rock pilgrimage.

Royal Blood:

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Live review: Royal Blood, London The O2

Rock duo Royal Blood prove they’ve got what it takes to go all the way to the top at London mega-show.

The bond shared by Royal Blood ’s Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher goes a lot deeper than just bandmates; they’re practically brothers. And tonight’s gargantuan show at The O2 in London shows that what these two started back in 2011 has taken them to the pinnacle of British rock. In essence, it’s one of the biggest gigs of their lives.

“About 10 years ago I asked Ben to be the drummer for my new band because he’s the best drummer in the world. Since that day you changed my life – I love you, man!” proclaims Mike after the duo have pounded their way through Troubles Coming, Hook Line And Sinker and Little Monsters.

As the pair fistbump after every break in play, the brotherhood these two share goes deeper than the music, and that energy expands across the crowd making this feel like a long-overdue family reunion. Opener Typhoons flexes it muscles with ease and reverberates around the arena like it was made to be played in such aesthetics. What follows is a set brimming with hit after hit, anthem after anthem, from the high-energy explosion of How Did We Get So Dark?, to the absolute mega-anthem Figure It Out.

When you’re on this fine form, it would be rude not to throw in a drum solo. Whilst Ben thrashes his kit, it becomes clear that it’s an instrumental we’ve all become familiar with over recent years: as a picture of Taylor Hawkins lights up the background, Ben takes his tribute a step further by playing one of the Foo Fighters legend’s very own drum solos. It’s a fitting tribute to a man who has heavily influenced this band – and undoubtedly the audience, too, who were left with a very large lump in their throat.

The exhilarating climax of All We Have Is Now, Ten Tonne Skeleton and Out Of The Black typifies what this band stand for: big, burly rock songs that create this humongous wall of pure anthemic noise. This is a fine-tuned machine, but still with all those gritty undertones of their early-day club shows.

While there have been years of hard work of graft and a trajectory only the youngest of rock bands could dream of, you still get the sense that Royal Blood are only just getting started. Venues like this don’t faze them; they play The O2 with an air of confidence that almost crosses the bridge to arrogance. But that’s by no means a bad thing – in fact, it’s to be admired. The prospect of selling out this arena is always daunting, but they shrugged it off and delivered an hour and a half of crunching rock numbers.

Now, the only thing left for them to do is get their name at the top of the biggest festivals, which, on tonight’s showing is a matter of when and not if .

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Royal Blood: Back to the Water Below review — rock’s supposed saviours reach their limit

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Once hailed as “saviours of rock”, it all went a bit Monty Python for Royal Blood earlier this year when the supposed messiahs were demoted to very naughty boys. The occasion was Radio 1’s Big Weekend festival in Dundee where the hard-rocking Brighton duo found themselves sandwiched alongside the poptastic likes of Niall Horan and Lewis Capaldi. 

The scowls that they habitually wear in publicity photos grew fiercer at the lukewarm response that their bludgeoning riffola received from the thousands of young pop fans present. By the end frontman Mike Kerr had had enough. Labelling the lack of applause “pathetic”, he sarcastically asked “Do you like rock music?” before exiting the stage amid a thick whine of feedback, middle fingers aloft.

Alas for the frontman, his rock-and-roll defiance backfired when videos showing the scene went viral. Much mockery and finger-wagging ensued, the yin and yang of online discourse. Kerr was condemned as a throwback to an age of men with guitars banging on about “real” music. The former saviour of rock found himself in the dock for behaving like a rock star.

Back to the Water Below is their fourth album. All its predecessors reached UK number one: hence the rock-saviour hype. Their set-up is basic, involving maximum volume from minimal instruments, albeit with a twist. Ben Thatcher is the drummer: his parts are full of action and detail without becoming overbearing. Meanwhile, Kerr sings and plays a bass guitar tricked out to sound like lead guitar: that’s the twist. Their music is stronger on riffs and groove than melodies and solos. 

New track “Tell Me When It’s Too Late” typifies the style. Kerr strikes up a squealing, super-catchy riff, bulked out by a solid, Rubin-esque hip-hop drumbeat. Jack White’s influence is obvious; elsewhere we encounter clear echoes of Queens of the Stone Age and Muse. But lack of originality is mitigated by a sure ear for riff-making.

Back to the Water Below repeatedly testifies to this skill. Less promisingly, it also illustrates the pair’s struggle to develop a more expansive sound. “There Goes My Cool” tries to take flight into 1970s pomp-rock, for instance, but an atmospheric piano-led beginning turns into a guitar-and-drums trudge. The album is too accomplished to inspire the frustration that Kerr expressed in his Big Weekend meltdown. However, it also conveys the sense of a limit being reached.

‘ Back to the Water Below ’ is released by Warner Records

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Royal Blood’s Glastonbury set proves they have lost their decade-old magic

Irrelevant has-beens or defiant rock heroes royal blood fill the gap between foo fighters and arctic monkeys and beg the question: what are they doing there.

You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

If Royal Blood’s on-stage tantrum at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend last month taught us anything, it’s that the duo – vocalist/bassist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher – don’t take kindly to an underwhelmed audience. And while punters close to the Pyramid Stage (the ones you can see on the telly) make the scene look as if it's all kicking off – with a mosh pit or two ignited by a few eager fans – it’s not many rows back before the crowd begins to thin. It’s a total pendulum swing in atmosphere from the recently finished Foo Fighters , who had packed out the area to its corners, with fans bobbing their heads and singing out into the sun.

In spite of the petered-out audience, the band walk out onstage with a quiet confidence, gazing over the revellers like a pair of carnivorous animals flexing their talons, before the inevitable swoop down onto their prey. Opener Out Of The Black is as good of an attack as any, with the band's split-pedalled riffs punching out like a grandiose fist, walloping the surrounding farm with the sound of its familiar weight.

While it’s pretty clear that Royal Blood’s initial burst to fame in 2013 left an imprint on a handful, the fact that material from their first two records, 2014’s self-titled debut and 2017’s How Did We Get So Dark? is doing most of the legwork – with the three songs played from 2021’s Typhoons failing to produce anything close to the same impact as tracks such as Come On Over, Little Monster and Ten Tonne Skeleton – its all pretty telling. Whatever power they once had, it seems to have all but gone. 

With their booking so high on the bill – and songs from a record released almost ten years ago generating the best response – the band’s relevancy at this point feels questionable. Royal Blood are certainly not the rock scene’s golden boys anymore, and their debut boom – from its earliest moments, when Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders repped them with an Royal Blood t-shirt during their last Glastonbury headline set in 2013 – has long past. 

It begs the question: What are Royal Blood doing here so far up on the bill, sandwiched between two of the biggest – and most relevant – bands on the planet? Judging by the lack of people failing to give much of a shit in the midst of the crowd – even a man wearing a disco ball as a hat refuses to dance – no one seems sure. 

After most of their songs are played, my friend brings things into a closer perspective, as she begins to sing the lyrics of other Royal Blood songs over the one that’s currently being played. “All their tracks sound exactly the same!”, she says. 

And as they sign off with the meaty Figure It Out , my mate returns with the final nail in the coffin: “it’s like a fart with no poo”, which is exactly how their set feels. Yes, the bangers are there, the craftsmanship is there, but everything else feels tired at this point. “There’s no shit!”.

With all that said, it’s certainly possible for a band as innovative as Royal Blood to return to their former heights, but it’s probably about time they stop riding off their first two albums, went back to basics, and replenished their catalogue with new anthems.

Hopefully their forthcoming new album Back To The Water will reinstall some of that former magic.

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Liz works on keeping the Louder sites up to date with the latest news from the world of rock and metal. Prior to joining Louder as a full time staff writer, she completed a Diploma with the National Council for the Training of Journalists and received a First Class Honours Degree in Popular Music Journalism. She enjoys writing about anything from neo-glam rock to stoner, doom and progressive metal, and loves celebrating women in music.

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Live Review: Royal Blood @ HBF Stadium

Perth were, in fact, more than ready.

Royal Blood (Credit: Mads Perch)

A few hours before they set foot onto the stage inside the HBF stadium, Royal Blood posted on their Instagram the quote “Perth, are you ready?”. It can be said that Perth were, in fact, more than ready.

Hometown heroes, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets , opened up the show with an enchanting half-hour set of their greatest hits. The five-piece band originated by playing together in "an old horse barn in Leederville”, not far from the stadium itself. Although it would be expected that their rather unusual band name would be what makes them memorable, this couldn’t be further from the truth. A performance, which really should come with a potential whiplash warning, was so full of energy that it was easy to believe the lead singer, Jack McEwan , when he said that it was a “dream to play back in WA”.

A set filled with powerful guitar riffs and synchronised headbanging ended with calls for an encore that rang around the stadium, a display that is not normal for a support act. It is fair to say that the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, who described supporting Royal Blood as a “pleasure”, managed to rile up the audience enough to create an atmosphere perfect for the main act to make their grand entrance.

Royal Blood, originating from Brighton in the UK, are a duo made up of Mike Kerr on the bass/lead vocals and Ben Thatcher on the drums. The band were not only concluding their Australia/New Zealand tour in the HBF stadium but also their whole year. 2023 has been quite eventful for the pair, ranging from the release of new music to the controversy that surrounded their Radio 1 Big Weekend performance back in the UK in May. Having put that behind them, it was clear from the outset of this gig that they wanted to end the year with a bang.

Out of the Black , a single from the pair's self-titled debut album, kicked things off for the Western Australian audience. The song can be seen as a display of the band at its best as even the intro of the song shows off their seemingly natural synchronicity and trademark drum and bass sound, not to be confused with the genre of DnB. Towards the end of the song came a break where only Kerr was playing his bass, leaving Thatcher being able to interact with the crowd away from his drums. On this occasion, this interaction saw the drummer signalling to the crowd to part in two in a biblical fashion, allowing him to jump down from the stage and walk into the gap he had created.

For most of the night, the stage is only occupied by the two band members who manage to create a full sound that you would expect from a four-piece. The way that Kerr manages to use a combination of talent and pedal effects to achieve this means that for songs like Typhoons and Mountains at Midnight there is no need for anyone else. However, since 2021, the band have been joined by touring member, Darren James on synths/backing vocals, whose addition was introduced to compliment the more dance and electronic-oriented sounds of later albums.

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Throughout the night, in every gap between songs, the crowd would chant “drum solo, drum solo, drum solo...” in an attempt to ignite Thatcher into one of his incredible displays of talent. Over the past decade of the band's existence within the mainstream, Thatcher has cemented himself as one of the greats of his generation on the drums, with his stage presence being his most notable skill. After a lot of teasing throughout the show, it was not until near the end that a solo drum piece was finally played. The wait was completely worth it and Thatcher managed to captivate the whole stadium into near silence for the full five minutes that he played alone for.

As predicted the final song to be played was the band's most popular hit, Figure it Out . As soon as the recognisable bassline started, a sea of phones went up in the air as most of the audience tried to capture a moment they could replay forever. Even though the energy in the stadium was at a ten out of ten throughout the whole night it seemed that during his song the crowd somehow managed to turn it up another notch.

As the final song ended, the pair bowed out together with one arm around eachother and the sound of Kerr’s bass guitar still ringing around the stadium. This signified the end of the gig and the end of Royal Blood’s time in Australia but the hope is that there will not be another five-year wait until the next time the Brighton band decides to come back.

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Royal Blood review — the blues-rock duo tweak a punchy yet predictable formula

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★★★☆☆ Adding welcome new colours to their monochrome garage-rock formula, Royal Blood launched their latest tour with a technically dazzling show that wrapped minimalist music in maximalist spectacle. This was not just the Brighton duo’s first UK date in six months, but also the inaugural music event at Swansea’s newly finished Arena, part of the city’s more than £1 billion Copr Bay development. With its rugged interior walls and needle-sharp acoustics, the cavernous 3,500-capacity hall felt tailor-made for the band’s architecturally striking stage production, which placed Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher on an asymmetrical raised platform framed by a giant concave video screen.

Much like Swansea’s marina area, Royal Blood’s sound has had a makeover of its own recently. On their latest chart-topping album, Typhoons , the bass-playing singer Kerr and drummer Thatcher finally twigged that heavy rock, funk and disco have shared musical DNA. This has nudged them in a more dance-friendly direction, with mechanised beats and synthesisers featuring prominently in this set courtesy of a discreetly placed auxiliary musician. Newer tracks brought extra sparkle and shading, from the funk-metal juggernaut of Typhoons to the stampeding Boilermaker and the fuzzed-up Trouble’s Coming , which sounded like Hot Chip channelling AC/DC.

Cosmetic tweaks aside, Royal Blood remain an essentially conservative prospect, sticking firmly within stripped-down blues-rock convention for most of this show, which included the debut public performance of their nondescript new single Honeybrains . Kerr and Thatcher’s implicit message is that modern music will never improve on your dad’s vinyl collection, so there is little point trying to innovate. It comes as no surprise that so many analogue-era rock icons are fans of the duo, from Jimmy Page to Dave Grohl. The gnarly Led Zeppelin homages juddering through Figure It Out in Swansea were no accident, and triggered frenzied headbanging in the crowd.

In fairness, this punchy show featured plenty of high-voltage crackle and testosterone swagger, clothing surprisingly slick pop-rock melodies in viscerally raw surface noise. Kerr’s kaleidoscopic use of his bass guitar, its guttural rumble expanded and distorted though numerous effects, worked particularly well live. Wringing such a broad sonic range from four strings was consistently impressive and lent many songs an agreeable edge of angular, abrasive, experimental noise-punk. Full of sound and fury, Royal Blood may not signify much but they make an exhilarating racket. Touring to April 3, royalbloodband.com

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1 September 2023 11:49 AM

Royal Blood, ‘Back To The Water Below’ review: won’t rattle your bones, but it’s perfectly fine

As their recent on-stage histrionics proved, royal blood want to be seen as rock's next great torchbearer. this fourth album says otherwise..

By Joe Goggins

Mike Kerr’s raging against the dying of the rock and roll light at Radio 1’s Big Weekend was fatally compromised by a few things, among them the optics of a grown man throwing a tantrum in front of a largely teenage audience, but the chief issue was that Royal Blood were not, actually, especially out of place at a pop-oriented festival. Their stock in trade has always been pop songs, based around hooks and melody, which they would then cloak with a bass distortion pedal to make them fit an unsophisticated idea of what a rock song is supposed to sound like: loud.

This proved a lucrative approach on 2014’s Royal Blood and its 2017 follow-up, When Did We Get So Dark? It allowed them to sell what is, in reality, pop music to a certain audience, one that non-ironically lifts devil horns at concerts and would ordinarily thumb their nose at anything catchy. Perhaps it was these people Kerr was trying to reach with his onstage outburst.

Followers of Royal Blood first attracted to them by their penchant for Big Fucking Riffs might be disappointed this time around. This is a measured record, occasionally to the point of being painfully aware of itself. ‘The Firing Line’ simmers but then fizzles out, as if they deliberately hold themselves back from a crescendo. ‘Pull Me Through’ and ‘There Goes My Cool’ are both bluesy rockers that bring to mind Lullabies to Paralyze -era Queens of the Stone Age, which to Royal Blood’s credit is a guise they wear well.

Those are among the memorable moments; elsewhere, there are myriad half-hearted attempts to infuse the distortion-pedal-go-vroom model with something fresh. Te changes in direction always feel superficial; weird, sing-songy vocals on ‘Shiner in the Dark’, a deliberately stilted rhythm to ‘Triggers’, and a maddening habit throughout of shoehorning in their favourite backing vocal, that of the “ooh-oooh” variety, where it isn’t needed.

The rock and roll cheque that Kerr wrote out up on that stage in Dundee has not been cashed on Back to the Water Below , because Royal Blood are not the guys to make an earth-shattering, bone-rattling argument for heavy music. Instead, they’re a perfectly serviceable pop-rock group who, playing these songs, will not at all look out of place on next year’s Big Weekend lineup.

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Royal Blood

• Date Wednesday November 22 , 2023 8:00 PM
• On Sale On Sale Now
• Ticket Pricing $34.50 - $49.50

Some rides are so fast, so wild, so vertiginous that you never want to get off. And when they do end, they’re all the more dizzying once you’ve disembarked.

“Going home was so weird,” says Mike Kerr, only now beginning to comprehend the incredible, inconceivable two-year ascent of Royal Blood, the Brighton bass-and-drums duo who shot to the stars between 2014 and ‘15. “I got so fidgety in the same place, really anxious. You’re hanging out with your mates in the pub and it’s really good to see them but you’re staring off like you just had the weirdest dream ever.”

The ultimate rock dream, in fact. When, at the start of 2013, Mike returned from nine months of travelling, and reunited with his old drummer mate Ben Thatcher in the car home from the airport, the pair could have no idea what awaited them.

After a year of honing their sound, built around Mike’s unique doctoring of his bass guitar to sound like an entire band of dark, blues-chewing desert rock psychopaths, they found themselves with Arctic Monkeys’ management (and their t-shirt on drummer Matt Helders’ chest at Glastonbury 2013), a major label deal and a spot as the only rock band on the BBC Sound Of 2014 list. As their gargantuan early singles – ‘Out Of The Black’, ‘Little Monster’, ‘Come On Over’, ‘Figure It Out’ - gained traction and acclaim in the UK, they struck out to America. “We spent most of our time over there, slowly going away at it,” says Mike. “We’d just done the Finsbury Park support with the Arctic Monkeys and it was like day one in America for us. It was back to twenty people in the room, there’s a leak in the ceiling, there’s a guy with an American flag tattoo, we’re in the middle of nowhere. I remember thinking ‘fuck, we’ve got to start again and this country is fucking huge’.”

They can laugh about the time they left Mike behind in a New Jersey gas station now, but at the time America was terrifying. Then the numbers got big, fast. Their self-titled debut album, released in August 2014, was the fastest-selling British rock debut in three years, hitting Number One in the UK and going Top Twenty in twelve countries, including the US. Before they knew it they were singing for Howard Stern (“our record was probably number 300 in the iTunes chart and about two minutes after our Howard Stern interview it was Number Three - playing on that show is like doing a thousand tours”), holding dressing room audiences with Jimmy Page in New York and being presented with a Best British Band Brit in 2015 by the very same guitar god.

“The Brits was definitely a big moment,” says Ben. “That was the first arena we played, the O2.” 

“Before, I felt we were climbing a ladder and being successful in our world, in the rock world,” Mike recalls, “so when we were selling out these little shows and we felt it growing it was like ‘cool, but this is in this world’, but with The Brits it was like ‘this is everyone’. It’s pop, it’s a very broad show, lots of people would tune in and probably see us who would never have known what we were. We definitely felt like we were in front of the unconverted.”

By the end of 2015, Royal Blood had – in debut album terms – pretty much conquered the world. They’d played stadiums with Foo Fighters and sold out their own theatre tours deep into the US heartlands. “It was all pretty full-on and florescent and exciting,” Mike remembers. “At the time we had no clarity on what was going on. It’s like when you put a frog in water and slowly boil it, it’ll just die, it won’t know the temperature is changing. We were the frog in the water and it was raging. We were just in survival mode; every gig was getting slightly bigger, we were doing everything for the first time. There was no end goal even, it was like ‘when’s this tour going to stop?’ It was like this ramp that was getting steeper and steeper and steeper. There wasn’t any low, it was very exciting. We’ll never have that experience again.” 

“It was like getting in a car and putting your foot down and not knowing when you’re going to stop,” Ben adds. 

So when the time came for the tour to end and the pair to take a projected couple of months off before starting work on writing their second album, the world just seemed to keep spinning. “At that time I was so into it that I didn’t want to stop, we wanted to do the next album,” says Ben, and Mike agrees. “The idea of stopping was weird and scary because that was reality now. That’s my one regret.”

Despite the intense touring adding an unpredictable kinetic energy and clairvoyance to their captivating live chemistry, what Mike calls a “swag” to their sound and a tighter bond to their friendship – “Part of our survival mode is keeping each other warm emotionally in the cave,” Mike explains – once writing began back in Brighton in November 2015 they initially struggled to conjure a fresh new strain of their music. “We were still on the road,” Mike says. “The thing we learnt was it’s healthier to divide those two worlds because they are so different. Being creative and writing is dreamworld and the more it can be dreamworld the more creative it can be and the more limitless and fun and imaginative it can be. Touring is very much like cold reality, there’s a real work ethic and responsibility to it. I find it very difficult to go between the two. So we’d come up with a few ideas but it felt like we were still in the world of the first album because we were still in the live mindset. So everything we wrote, it wasn’t bad but it was of the same era.”

When seeking new horizons, take to the skies. After experimenting with new ways of writing songs in Brighton – sometimes working separately for the first time, sometimes building tracks from the drums up, always trying to explore ways of stripping their enormous sound back to give it more space and impact to “take people’s heads off” - Ben and Mike spent 2016 visiting new friends in America for their writing sessions because, Ben explains, “it felt exciting to keep it moving… subconsciously, we weren’t very comfortable staying still.” They made several trips out to the studio in Burbank in Hollywood where they’d previously written their first second-album song ‘Hook, Line And Sinker’ (premiered live at Reading & Leeds 2015), and then hit Nashville for some further sessions. They focussed, by necessity, on filling in gaps. 

“Every song for us is like a live weapon,” says Mike. “On our first album we know that all of these songs do a certain thing live, they have a certain character, but we have a lot of key set moments missing. We never have a moment where it chills at all, and there’s no way we can do this for an hour and a half or two hours, it’ll just be dynamic-less. So we need a song that does that, so let’s explore that. We also need a song that goes even more ballistic than anything we’ve done. That made every song have a character.” They even allowed a smattering of effects to invade their strict drum/bass dynamic, dropping submarine pings over the monstrous groove of ‘Lights Out’ and tempering the riff firestorms of ‘Hole In Your Heart’ with some Doors-like Fender Bass Rhodes keyboard. “That was probably a subconscious thing,” Mike muses, “it’d be cool to have a moment where I’m not on the bass and something changes.”

Ben grins. “Everyone will know what song that is when the keyboard rolls out.”

A few comedy misadventures later, they returned with ten sensational new tracks falling firmly into place. Besides the lyrics. The sour, visceral and vengeful romantic anguish that had fuelled Mike’s writing on the debut had dried up in the face of global success. “It was strange after the first one, which was very much about a singular relationship,” Mike admits. “We went out and toured it and our lives changed. It was amazing, I had a very good life and nothing to say or write about. Writing about love and relationships is what comes naturally to me as a songwriter. So I didn’t know what to write about, I was in a relationship and fairly content. I was trying to make stuff up, which I swore I’d never do, trying to write about things I didn’t really care about.”

Then, bingo: heartbreak. “My relationship fell apart and basically that was when I was like ‘I know what this record’s going to be about’. I went through a break-up and then we went into the studio. There were songs I’d written while still in this relationship where I didn’t quite know what the lyrics meant. When I look back at them now it’s almost like therapy. You can see what’s going on in what seemed quite cryptic at the time.”

So, come November 2016 Ben and Mike, along with producer Jolyon Thomas, decamped to an “insane” studio in Brussels decked out like a New York diner and featuring a warehouse of antique gear that was “almost like where Bond and Q have their meetings”, and spent six weeks making a chronological ten-track open diary of Mike’s splintering love life. From the first nagging suspicions that cracks are beginning to appear (‘She’s Creeping’, a devil-on-the-dancefloor tune about “where you realise something’s going wrong because you’re thinking about someone else”), the album goes on to dissect the lies that we tell ourselves to shore up the façade (sinuous blues groover ‘I Only Lie’), the inevitable dulling of the initial flame (‘Hole In Your Heart’) and finally reaches a point where “something so brilliant and beautiful and fun and life-changing and amazing” has become “something so horrid that you wish you’d never experienced the good thing in the first place to get to here” (‘Dark’).

“I’ve definitely been honest,” Mike admits. “Where I could have said something that sounded really cool and badass, I went for the vulnerable line. I know people have been through all the experiences I’m talking about.” 

Six weeks of cabin fever creativity so intense that Mike could barely sleep for “buzzing from the tunes”, one further session in London with their first album co-producer Tom Dalgety, and Royal Blood emerged with ‘How Did We Get So Dark?’, a second album that finds them squaring up to Queens Of The Stone Age and Muse in terms of sheer melodic might while refining and expanding the mystical two-man voodoo that will keep Royal Blood at the very forefront of millennial UK rock music.

“This one spreads the cards out a little bit,” says Mike. “The first one established our sound, this one goes to places we haven’t been before, in lots of different directions, but it all still very much sounds like us, I don’t think we’ve abandoned what’s good about us, that was the main focus. It’s all about playing with our tools, sharpening them, refining what’s good about us.”

And as they get back on the ride for another go, this time set to rocket around arenas, they’re determined to maintain the up-close ferocity that always made them such a magnetic spectacle. “As long as the emphasis of the show is around me and Ben playing together and our chemistry, and it isn’t about some fucking cannon going off,” says Mike. “It’s almost like the record is an advert for the show. We want it to feel as real and intimate as possible, no matter how big the gigs are gonna be.”

Hold tight, Royal Blood are about to pump faster.

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Royal Blood are a British rock band, comprising Mike Kerr (bassist, singer) and Ben Thatcher (drummer). They formed in Brighton in 2013.

There are meteoric rises, and then there are the kind of success stories that Royal Blood can lay claim to. They only started playing music together in early 2013, but began to pick up a head of steam after playing just a handful of shows; in June of that year, Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders - who has form on this front - wore one of the band’s shirts onstage during their Glastonbury headline performance, before the pair had even released a single. Later that year, they confirmed that they’d support the Sheffield titans in London the following year, and also dropped a debut single, ‘Out of the Black’.

Their second single, ‘Little Monster’, as well as the B-side form their first, ‘Come On Over’, generated considerable hype in early 2014, but it was a slew of high-profile festival slots at the likes of T in the Park, Reading and Leeds and Radio 1’s Big Weekend that propelled them to the success they’d taste later in the year; their self-titled debut, released in late August 2014, smashed sales records, becoming the fastest-selling British debut rock album in three years. The pair will be on the road in support of it for the foreseeable future.

Live reviews

I discovered this band upon hearing they were streaming their debut album for free on iTunes days before release, and instantly fell in love, without even realising this four-or-five-piece-sounding band was in fact just produced by Mike Kerr on the bass and vocals, and Ben Thatcher on drums. I just knew I had to buy the album, which led me entering a competition from the band to win a Royal Blood themed bass. This ultimately led to me getting a presale code from the band for the Nov 11th gig. I was struggling to find friends who'd even heard of the band, but nonetheless I gathered a couple of people to join me and ordered the tickets. And oh what a great decision! As it turned out, the regular tickets, released two days later, sold out in 2 minutes! On 10th Nov I was buzzing for the gig, which was expected the following day, only to find out Mike had severe tonsillitis and the gig would be postponed until January. I was so gutted, but up until this day, I gained an even greater love for the band, who seemed to be rapidly gaining popularity - so much so that I was lucky enough to get tickets for them supporting the effing Foo Fighters with Iggy Pop at Wembley Stadium! The support act 'Turbowolf' also gained some popularity and -it seems- time to develop as a live act throughout this period.

On Jan 8th, I finally went to the Oxford O2 only to find myself a row behind the barrier, awaiting Turbowolf. I feel they totally deserve some credit here because, oh, what perfect support they were. The crowd was inevitably 700% less bloody mental for them but it must be said, their singer is now my favourite frontman of all time behind Dave Grohl.

Anyway, since this is a review for the great Royal Blood, and not Turbowolf -whom I will endeavour to see again- I will focus now on them. Ben and Mike absolutely killed it at this very special gig in a 1000 cap venue - definitely the last time they'll be playing somewhere that small. What an entrance they made, walking on to a strobe and whatever that epic, electronic, four-note, horn-part-sounding tune is. They then broke in with that absolute brilliance that is 'Come on Over', a perfect first song to set us all off. After the complete lack of movement from the crowd during Turbowolf, which is of course expected, the insanity of the bone-breaking mosh that broke in took me by a pleasantly mind-blowing surprise. Being one of my first gigs with neither a non-heavy band nor family-friendly crowd, I was reluctant to join the centre of this brutal mosh pit at first, and stood with my friends amongst the insanity but not enclosed by it. I gradually, however, broke into this and I have to say, the crowd's reaction was as important to the quality of the gig as the band themselves. It was truly something special, and in Royal Blood's case, I would expect the same beautiful crowd reaction at all future gigs.

'You Can Be So Cruel' followed, with the great 'Figure it Out' following after that. It was a perfect start to the gig with three absolute tunes to set us all off. They then played the excellent Come on Over B-side 'You Want Me', and then built it all up with the climactic 'Better Strangers', the ending of which led onto one of my favourite moments of the gig when they played 'Little Monster', one of my very favourites, to which the crowd went mental; we all shouted along in that sweaty, bruise and booze filled room. Each song that followed during the short, hour-or-so long set was -of course, given that this is Royal Blood- an absolutely bangin tune. The duo expectedly ended with the great 'Out of the Black', surely soon to be a modern rock legend. The crowd went ecstatic and bodies were torn to shreds (metaphorically speaking). The mind-blowing Ben Thatcher left the drums to climb onto the barrier, welcoming his well-deserved worship from the crowd before doing the classic point towards Mike on the bass, signalling a mind-mauling build up to the cranium-explodingly sick live version to the song's ending, in which Ben climbed onto his stool and absolutely abused his cymbals. This sensationally dramatic ending signalled the end to the entire gig, where no (in this case unnecessary) encore followed and the music began playing instantly through the speakers, in order not to raise anyone's hopes.

If you're think I about seeing them, seriously, go and see them.

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Having seen RB twice before, once in the tiny Newport Centre ,when they were incredible, and supporting Foo Fighters at MK Bowl, where they were good but got a bit lost in the size of the place , I was really looking forward to seeing them at the 1700 capacity Guildhall.

Well right from the word go you could tell they had become a lot more polished both in their sound and their stage set . Kicking off with a new song they sounded as tight as ever and I'm still amazed at how much noise 2 people can make . Crowd favourites Loose Change and Figure it Out swiftly followed with the mosh pit now in full swing . New single Lights Out went down a storm and another new song featuring Mike on ..gasp ..keyboards..also received a good response.

Ten Tonne Skeleton and Out of the Black finished the show in grand style with the crowd in raptures but the duo failed to do an encore.

This was especially disappointing as the whole set came in at a paltry 70 minutes the only real drawback of the whole night . Where were the TRex covers when you needed them ? Also the new songs , although good, had Muse overtones, which didn't entirely impress as I'm not a fan I'm afraid .

All in all 8/10 still recommended but not entirely sure how they will sound in the newly announced arena tour .

Ps Their much vaunted ticketless policy didn't really work as I was only asked for the original payment card and wasn't asked for copy of email or ID which they insisted you wouldn't be allowed in without?

Royal Blood are the hottest property in rock music right now, and justifiably after releasing a debut album full of killer tunes and a sound that is slightly different to anything else. However the question is can they cut it live? The answer is a resounding yes!

Coming on to JayZ's 99 Problems, the eager crowd are soon jumping around to opener Come On Over and before you know it we are 4 songs in.

For a two-piece, the noise is rich and all encompassing. The vocals are bang on too and singer Mike Kerr has a good stage presence, without too much chat between songs. In fact I think drummer Ben Thatcher is the more outgoing of the two, milking adulation from the crowd at every opportunity.

Every song from the album is given an airing, plus b-side You Want Me, finishing with Out Of The Black. It's hard to pick out highlights when every track is great but this last song, along with Figure It Out and Ten Tonne Skeleton were my personal best-bits!

The only disappointment is that they don't have more tunes to play yet and the set is not even an hour long. There are questions about how they will cope playing in larger venues and stadiums, can they make another album as good as their debut and can they grow and develop their sound? All made more challenging as there are only two of them, and we will have to wait and see. But for now, just go and see them and enjoy them for what they are - the most exciting new rock band around.

Full Disclosure: I'm a Bass Player so any band that spotlights said instrument gets my full attention!

When that band like Royal Blood consist of two members, Mike Kerr: bass & vocals Ben Thatcher: drums, I'm even more intrigued!! Musically Royal Blood float in that area of two member bands like The White Stripes and The Black Keys but arguably more heavier given that the Bass is the lead instrument as the others are guitar driven.

Live they are very energetic and interact with the crowd well. Ben at one point left his drum kit and body surfed for a bit!

Mike has more effects laid out in front of him than Steve Vai and makes full use of the whole set up making his Bass sound like a a full band on it's on!

But they also have the songs to back up their wall of noise they produce. New songs like "I only Lie when I Love You" has a monstrous hook that in the heyday of MTV and Radio would have been a huge hit no question.

And songs of their first album like "Monster" will just pummel you into the ground with it's sludgy early Soundgarden approach.

I wish these two guys all the luck and good fortune in their, what I hope to be, long career! I'm a fan. And... ROCK IS NOT DEAD!

The concert was great. The band played all of their best songs and the solos were the highlights of the night. I really liked the intro too because it was in a Christmas mood. Carol of the bells is definitely my favorite Christmas song after this concert. I really liked how the singer sang everything through without skipping any parts in songs. The quality of the performance was on top and my friend and I had a very good time on the concert. I am very grateful that the band made it to Zurich after all. It was very cool and remarkable. Even the warm-up band before Royal Blood was very cool which I honestly didn't expect. All in all, I was very happy with the performance and how the band cheered up the audience. The atmosphere in the hall was crazy and very rock-n-roll. I really hope to see the band here again.

Although this was only my second rock concert, it's definitely going to outdo any show in my concert-going future. The energy from Mike and Ben radiated into the crowd, and being on the barrier was a dream come true. sure, my neck experienced *some* pain from excessive headbanging, but my mood was not phased one bit. Mike and Ben are truly a bloody insane duo, and they kept the energy all the way up to 11 the whole time. I've been obsessed with them for about a year, and they managed to sound even better live than in the studio. Absolutely no doubt that I'm DEFINITELY going to see them again when they come around next.

One of the best live bands I've seen in ages, and the Newcastle crowd did it justice too. Having driven down from Glasgow (cmon RB we need to see you at the famous Glasgow Barrowlands), the venue, the crowd and Royal Blood were on fire!

Ben and Mike rocked it out and the sound that came from them was like a sound from a four or five piece band, looking forward to the album and it was great to see Mike on the keyboards and guitar at at almost the same time!

Love to Black Honey who a great supporting act, one to watch out for the future, mix of Joan Jett and Gwen Steffani

Royal Blood are absolutely fantastic. If you haven't seen them, then they're a must. The music was just awesome and the sound coming from just two blokes, a guitar and drums was different and loud. There's nothing like it. Loved the lyrics, loved the music, loved the show. A great night and will go and see them again!

The only gripe about playing in a big arena like Nottingham Motorpoint Arena is that the sound can become distorted but it was the same with Queens of the Stone Age at the Greenwich O2. Not the fault of the band but the venue.

Talk about working a crowd into a frenzy...Mike Kerr of Royal Blood did just that last night @ jannus live. Ben Thatcher was a crowd favorite...so much energy and skill on the skins and with the crowd, he rallied the troops throughout the entire show. Special thanks to TurboWolf for an excellent set to get the crowd into the onslaught of power rock by these two talented Brits. Very engaging with the crowd...Royal Blood has a true cult following in the Tampa Bay area....all ages...all persuasions were kicking up their heels for this show.

I had high expectations going in and I was still blown away by their performance. What a great band to see live. I have been reading a lot about Royal Blood lately from the UK music mags (mostly NME) and I was expecting a great show. These TWO guys sure make it sound like your listening to a full band. The drummer hits those skins harder than I've seen a drummer in a long time. The show was about forty five minutes and ten songs deep. I loved every minute. Go see them now before they move on to bigger venues!

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Royal Blood – ‘Back To The Water Below’ review: an instinctive return to their roots

The duo's self-produced new album sees them tap back into the undeniable chemistry that they made their name on

When it came time for Royal Blood to head back into the studio for their fourth album ‘Back To The Water Below’, they made the bold decision to prioritise gut instinct over sensibility. They’d just finished touring their third album, 2021’s ‘Typhoons’ in arenas across the globe, and the opportunity was there to have copied and pasted the formula to another success.

• READ MORE: Royal Blood: “Every time you open your mouth these days, you’re rolling the dice”

While ‘Typhoons’ saw them handing over some of the production credits to Paul Epworth  ( Adele ,  Florence + The Machine ,  U2 ) and  Queens Of The Stone Age ‘s  Josh Homme , this time around, vocalist and bassist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher opted to make the album themselves at their home studio in Brighton. It was a decision the lifelong friends made intentionally, realising that at the core of their success was their chemistry and trust in each other.

“Ben and I know each other so well, and this record was about being honest with each other,” Kerr recently told NME . “Self-producing it forced us to do things that came naturally to us.” The result is ‘Back To Water Below’, an album that highlights the band’s rock and roll instincts, self-knowledge and ability to generate something new with a bass, drums and zero hand holding.

The band have been on an upward trajectory since they released their debut self-titled album back in 2014 ( NME  noted that the duo focused on the noise and guts of their two-pronged assault ), following it with 2017’s ‘How Did We Get So Dark’ which proved the band were anything but one hit album wonders. Then ‘Typhoons’ sealed the deal, so to speak, solidifying them not only as a tried and true rock duo but a Glastonbury Pyramid Stage-worthy band .

After making headlines this summer with an outburst at their “pathetic” crowd at Radio 1’s Big Weekend , here the pair block out all outside noise, return to their home studio and tap back into the undeniable chemistry that they made their name on.

With ‘Back To The Water Below’, they continue to put their money where their sound is, and album opener ‘Mountains At Midnight’ is the first evidence of that pursuit. It crashes in with a stir of distorted sound, heavy drumming and Kerr howling, “I’m a bruise you soothe / In your dancing shoes” over brash, high-tempo percussion. The track spirals and crashes, building up tension before breaking in the smooth delivery of the lines: “Crawling out on my bones / Till the break of the daylight” . It plays out like an escape, but only if you want to head back home to well-worn territory.

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In the gritty, echoing ‘Shiner In The Dark’, the duo take on a more melodic tone, swaggering through a spiralling rock track and crooning “I got bruises” in a way that makes the damage almost sound desirable. ‘Pull Me Through’ poses as a sweet piano song before Royal Blood’s rock propensities take centre stage and a sinister beat breaks up the moments between the verses and the chorus and Kerr leans into the full wealth of his vocals as he confidently urges, “Heart swinging like a punch bag / Waiting on you  /To pull me through, ” with an air of surrender that traces every word.

There’s also ample evidence on the album that Kerr and Thatcher’s decision to take on production was a wise one. ‘The Firing Lane’ shows off a new depth of production for the duo, with lush piano keys crawling upwards right before they strip back the instrumentation, revealing a sonic simplicity that allows the storyline of losing oneself then wandering home to sit in the limelight.

‘Back To The Water Below’ feels like a return for Royal Blood. Honouring their gut, as Kerr said they did in the studio, has manifested fertile results for their band. “Whenever we do something really honest, it’s musically very powerful,” the bassist told NME . There’s power in trusting your instincts, and ‘Back To The Water Below’ backs that assertion.

• Release date:  September 1
• Record label: Warner Records
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Royal Blood Announce 2022 North American Tour

The trek kicks off in April

Royal Blood are returning to North America next year. The tour begins on April 18 at History in Toronto, ON and wraps up on May 24 at the House of Blues in Boston, MA. Pre-sale tickets for Royal Blood’s mailing list members begins at 10am local time this Wednesday, December 1. General public on-sale begins at 9am local time on Friday, December 3. All ticket information is available HERE .

Check out the full tour itinerary below.

“Delighted and thrilled to the core to announce our tour of North America in 2022,” the band said on social media. “We cannot wait to be reunited with you all!”

The band’s last North American run was slated for May of 2020, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Royal Blood released their third studio LP Typhoons back in April. The album hit No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart, and cracked the Top 5 on the Billboard Top Alternative and Top Hard Rock Albums charts. All three of the band’s studio albums have topped the UK Albums Chart making them one of the biggest British acts of the last decade.

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Royal Blood Announce 2023 North American Tour

The UK duo are set to embark on an extensive two-leg stateside outing

Royal Blood have announced an extensive two-leg 2023 North American Fall 2023 tour in support of their recently announced forthcoming album, Back to the Water Below .  The outing will feature support from Bad Nerves on the first leg and Hot Wax on the second leg.

The first leg of the UK duo’s stateside tour will kick off on September 16th at the Sea.Hear.Now festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and wrap up October 3rd in New York City. The second leg launches November 9th in Los Angeles and finishes November 27th in San Diego.

Tickets are available via StubHub , where your purchase is 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s Fan Protect program.

As mentioned, Royal Blood are set to release the new album Back to the Water Below , which arrives on September 8th. Judging by the first single, “Mountains at Midnight,” the band appears to be returning to a more hard-rocking vibe after delving into dance and alternative sounds on their previous effort, 2021’s Typhoons .

Hopefully, Royal Blood get a better reception on the North American tour than they did this past Sunday during their gig at BBC Radio One’s Big Weekend in Dundee, Scotland. Frontman Mike Kerr was clearly unhappy with the crowd’s lack of enthusiasm, lambasting them from the stage and flipping them off as the band wrapped up the performance.

Preceding and in-between the North American legs, Royal Blood will be playing shows in Europe and the UK. See their complete itinerary below, and pick up tickets here.

Royal Blood 2023 Tour Dates: 06/03 – Wiener Neustadt, AT @ Stadion Wiener Neustadt 06/05 – Nijmegen, NL @ Doomroosje 06/06 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso 06/07 – The Hague, NL @ Malieveld 06/09 – Cologne, DE @ RheinEnergieStadion 06/10 – Ulm, DE @ Ulmer Zelt 06/11 – Berlin, DE @ Huxleys 06/13 – Mannheim, DE @ Zeltfestival Rhein Neckar 06/14 – Nancy, FR @ Lautre Canal 06/30 – Toulouse, FR @ Le Bikini 07/02 – Lisbon, PT @ Sagres Campo Pequeno 07/07 – Clermont Ferrand, FR @ La Cooperative de Mai 07/13 – Luxembourg. LU @ Neumunster Abbey 07/15 – Marseille, FR @ Orange Vélodrome 07/18 – Rome, IT @ Stadio Olimpico 07/22 – Milan, IT @ Stadio San Siro 07/23 – Steventon, UK @ Truck Festival 07/27 – Penrith, UK @ Kendal Calling 07/28 – Matlock, UK @ Y Not Festival 09/16 – Asbury Park, NJ @ Sea.Hear.Now Festival 09/18 – Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore Detroit 09/19 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theatre 09/21 – Louisville, KY @ Louder Than Life Festival 09/22 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant 09/23 – Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theatre 09/25 – Toronto, ON @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre 09/26 – Montreal, QC @ MTELUS 09/27 – Boston, MA @ Roadrunner 09/29 – New Haven, CT @ College St. Music Hall 09/30 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore 10/02 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel 10/03 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall 10/20 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo 10/22 – Stockton, UK @ Globe 10/24 – London Eventim, UK @ Apollo 10/25 – Liverpool, UK @ Mountford Hall 10/26 – Wolverhampton, UK @ Hall 10/27 – Portsmouth, UK @ Guildhall 10/29 – Belfast, IE @ Telegraph Building 10/30 – Dublin, IE @ 3Olympia Theatre 11/09 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern 11/10 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater 11/11 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst 11/13 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre 11/14 – Vancouver, BC @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre 11/15 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom 11/17 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Union Event Center 11/18 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre 11/20 – Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom 11/21 – Dallas, TX @ South Side Ballroom 11/22 – Austin, TX @ ACL Live at The Moody Theater 11/25 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theater 11/26 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren 11/27 – San Diego, CA @ The Sound

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Royal Blood kick off massive Australian tour this weekend with Psychedelic Porn Crumpets and The Buoys

• December 7, 2023
• Psychedelic Porn Crumpets
• Royal Blood

UK’s Royal Blood are on their way back to Australian waters, as they kick off their Australia/New Zealand tour tonight in Auckland, ahead of their Australian dates this weekend.

The tour has been a long time coming, with the duo – Mike Kerr & Ben Thatcher – having last played shows out here in 2018. Since then, they’ve released no less than two new full length albums, 2021’s Typhoons and their latest, Back To The Water Below. You can listen to that album HERE .

That record scored them their third consecutive #1 in the UK. Plus, they arrive in Australia off the back of a massive run of dates across Europe, UK, US and Canada, so you know they’re incredibly match fit at this point.

On a personal note, this marks the almost 10 year anniversary of us first interviewing the now iconic duo at SXSW 2014. So I think that means we can officially call them legends now? Rewatch that interview here:

They’re going to be supported by Psychedelic Porn Crumpets and The Buoys at all Australian shows. So be sure to get there early. The full run of dates are below, which includes a couple of festivals – Let The Good Times Roll Festival on the Central Coast, and Changing Tides Festival in Kiama.

Thursday 7 December ​Spark Arena | Auckland, NZ ​Lic. All Ages ​ticketmaster.co.nz

​Sunday 10 December Let The Good Times Roll Festival Memorial Park, The Entrance, Central Coast NSW letthegoodtimesrollfestival.com.au

Monday 11 December ​Riverstage | Brisbane, QLD ​Lic. All Ages ​ticketmaster.com.au

Wednesday 13 December ​Hordern Pavilion | Sydney, NSW ​Lic. All Ages ​ticketek.com.au

Friday 15 December ​Festival Hall | Melbourne, VIC ​18+ ​ticketmaster.com.au

​Sunday 17 December Changing Tides Festival Kiama Showgrounds, Kiama, NSW changingtides.com.au

Tuesday 19 December ​Hindley Street Music Hall | Adelaide, SA ​18+ ​moshtix.com.au

Thursday 21 December ​HBF Stadium | Perth, WA ​Lic. All Ages ​ticketmaster.com.au

Headline Photo by Tom Beard

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