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Mike Kerr [left – bass/lyrics]
Ben Thatcher [right – drums]

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After Royal Blood recently announcing the coming of their third studio album … TYPHOONS … set to be released on the 30th of April, the Brighton duo have been just as straight-talking with their music since 2013 …

but how has their music evolved over time?

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“We’ve feel like we’ve made our favourite album.”

– Mike Kerr, BBC Radio 1’s Future Sounds, in talks about the third album, 2021

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The Origins: Out of the Black (2013)

I remember the moment when Out of the Black came on the radio in 2013 from this band no-one had really heard of before. And, I was blown away.

It was a unique moment. A hard-hitting, and high-spirited youthful duo with a unique sound to their name. A tailored technique to make a bass play like that of an electronic guitar – like, what? It was absurdly cool to think of such a thing, and for it to work, too. They burst onto the scene in glorious fashion due to their unique playing and compelling songwriting first airing on local stations within Brighton, then before they knew it, they were playing on Radio 1.

They then kept on coming. From Out of the Black, we were lurched into a frenzy with Figure It Out in 2014, and then we completely lost it when we were told an album was going to be released in the same year.

In anticipation for their debut album, Royal Blood, the single, “Figure it Out” managed to go platinum with a total of 600,000 sales of the song itself.

Then, of course – it came.

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The Debut: Royal Blood (2014)

The debut self-titled album hit the shelves in spectacular fashion, trailblazing the way for creative and unique ways to share the love of heavy, hard-hitting rock to the fans – and was an instant success. Not only did it Chart Number 1 here in the UK, but was also known to be the fastest-selling UK rock debut album for 3 years. landing them an impressive scoring of achieving platinum twice.

Apart from the pre-released singles of course, their notably-shattering singles “Come on Over“, “Little Monster” (for that drum part) and “Loose Change” from the album brought the whole thing round to a stupendous close for me. But then again, you can’t really pick this album apart song-by-song, because the whole thing is quality.

In just less than a year of the album releasing, the band were playing headline shows to packed anthem crowds and sharing stages with Foo Fighters and Iggy Pop in 2015. Which I went to, of course! What a throwback.

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The Sequel: How Did We Get So Dark? (2017)

Just as raw and aggressive, their second album soon followed after in 2017, ‘How Did we Get So Dark?‘ which painted a more dismal mood to their music than the last.

With honourable mentions including, Lights Out and I Only Lie When I Love You, their second album not only solidified their desire and willingness to pump out more ecstatic songs but also allowed them to reach new boundaries musically than what they ever did with the debut.

Along with the improve rate of the production, their confidence as lyricists and song-writers improved massively, as the depth of their songs made us delve deeper into the plethora of how talented these pair were. With Don’t Tell and Sleep straying off from the beaten path, their exploration widened and gave us a more mature album, if you like. Although not as commercially successful as the first, they had evolved as commercial music artists themselves.

Will we it be the same in their third album?

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Into the Third: TYPHOONS (2021)

Since 2017, it’s safe to say the pair has been keeping themselves on the down low and out of the spotlight. That was until they announced in late September 2020 of their lead single, Trouble’s Coming, that was set to be placed on an album in the near future sometime soon.

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“I think we set the bar so high for this one … we wanted to really make something that we felt that was better than anything we’d ever made and yet, simultaneously felt fresh.

We didn’t want to come back with an album that could’ve been a mix of our last records – there’s something that just felt gross about that and it wouldn’t of been creatively satisfying.”

– Mike Kerr, BBC Radio 1 Future Sounds, 22/01

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With the sheer bass and velocity along on the song to bring out the stanky face, it was a worthy choice to announce the Brighton boys they’re back.

When you compare this single to their debut, it shows how much they were initially holding back from their debut. This simply just implores that these two have become more well-rounded musicians surmounting themselves for an equally-impressive third album, and I can’t wait for it.

And now? Now, they’ve finally announced their third album, TYPHOONS, set for release on the April 30th. On the 21st of this month, they also announced the next self-titled single, Typhoons – which is just as hard-hitting and resounding as Trouble’s Coming.

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“It felt more confident as well [talking about the making of Typhoons], like we knew the world we were in and the parameters of it”

– Mike Kerr, BBC Radio 1 Future Sounds, 22/01

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With these two singles you can see their confidence, maturity and sheer attitude has shifted into creating something better than they have ever created before.

Regardless what I say about their music evolving though, whether it will take the title from the debut is another story. It’s certainly going to be difficult to top that one.