Every now and then something comes along to shake the foundations of a dozy, flatulent and mediocre music scene. In the most unexpected way, too. Royal Blood are one of those bands – a band whose sound is so hard and heavy, fat and groovy and rammed full of the kind of riffing that brings out the caveman (and cavewoman!) in us, that it is a bit of a surprise to learn they are English, from Sussex even. Back in the 70s you would have expected the likes of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, but in more recent times we seem to have lost the knack for hard rock, although acts such as Drenge do try, if only they had better songs. Royal Blood have yet to make an average song, let alone a bad one.

In little more than a year Royal Blood have gone from absolutely nowhere to kings-in-waiting, with a killer combination of great playing, fine songs and a distinctive look and sound about them and the fact that there are only two of them. Singer and bassist Mike Kerr ostensibly plays the bass, but via one of those happy accidents involving crosswires, pedals and plenty of ampage, he’s effectively created a new sound, which basically involves the top two strings as bass, the bottom two as guitar. Kerr is also a fine musician, having played the piano from an early age (he writes many of the songs using the piano) and together with drummer Ben Thatcher they are perfectly in unison, their chemistry as one.

So, with four tracks already out in the public domain, expectations have been unsurprisingly high that Royal Blood will deliver and deliver they have, rummaging through the copy books of Black Sabbath, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Queens of The Stone Age, Muse, Raconteurs, White Stripes and other lesser known names. But while they often do sound like one or more of the aforementioned, they are invariably only little snippets within songs, Kerr and Thatcher only using quality shop ingredients to concoct their own fresh recipe.

Best known track Out of the Black is like the perfect stage entrance for Royal Blood. Out of the Black they have come, beginning the song with the choppy guitar and single drum in tandem before exploding into the now distinctive super heavy bass sound, with Kerr suitably intoning, ‘How did it feel when it came alive and took you out of the black’? It’s an inventive track, little runs here and there, a three-part song, even a subtle tambourine in the background. The effect is truly startling as Kerr effortlessly switches from guitar to bass throughout.

Out of the Black was just the second track to see the light of day at the tail end of 2013 and it remains their best known tune, although the album features nine other songs that are all close contenders to being future favourites, such is the high consistency achieved by Kerr and Thatcher.

Come on Over and Figure It Out are also known songs too; Come On Over is very much in the old Bleach-era Nirvana mode, Kerr’s slacker drawl drawing the listener in before he lets rip, albeit in a controlled fashion – a style borrowed from Kurt Cobain. One minor criticism of Royal Blood could be the way Kerr sometimes unsubtly mimics the American sound and language, some of his lyrics also reading most un-Sussex like, such as ‘You made a fool out of me, took the skin off my back, honey’ and ‘Just a kid like me, trying to cuss and see, trying to figure it out.’ Kid, cuss, figure – all Americanisms. But hardly a quibble really, Brits have been adopting Americanisms ever since The Beatles and The Stones.

Meanwhile the oldest song here, Figure It Out, lifts off via The Groundhogs Cherry Red hit of ’71, before borrowing a little from The White Stripes, Kerr’s vocal transformed into the higher register of Jack White, whose White Stripes were the original rock duo. Now it’s common, but someone once asked if they could think of a single example of one pre-White Stripes style duo. I can’t, unless you count the extremely downbeat John Peel favourites Medicine Head of the early 70s… Still, despite these obvious signposts, it’s a remarkably unique sound thanks to the skill of the songwriting – there is a lot of thought going on here, exemplified by the end of Come On Over which features some terrific drums in sync with the guitar and provides a little extra space for Thatcher to shine. Which, to be fair, he does throughout the album, treating his drums as an instrument, rather than a mere functioning rhythm backbeat. It’s easy to focus on Kerr, but Thatcher’s playing is just as important, imagination running riot, but never over playing his hand. In other words, Royal Blood don’t do indulgence and steer well clear of being labelled musos.

You Can Be So Cruel has more of a funky groove to it, a White Stripes meets Queens of the Stone Age feel, while the slower paced yet still chest vibrating Blood Hands – there are plenty of blood references strewn throughout their repertoire and image – is seriously powerful, particularly when Kerr drops in to the chorus, the bass hitting unfathomable deaths of heaviness. Glorious ain’t the word…

Little Monster has one of the best intros of recent times, overall this track being the closest to classic 70s rock on the album, while new track Loose Change also harks back to the bass grooves of Black Sabbath, with Kerr adopting more of a swaggering glam pose.

Lyrically, there is some retribution throughout; that combined with the band’s name and their penchant for black and an outsiders look, can veer dangerously close to the ludicrous, but Royal Blood keep it together, although Kerr, the lyricist, has obviously quite a lot of hurt to deal with. But, it was ever thus! On Careless: ‘I’m tired of kidding myself, another pill no good for my health, I wish I could make this disappear.’ He wished he could care less, but he can’t. He cares, he really fucking does and so do Royal Blood, a band with red red liquid flowing through those veins. It’s exciting, it’s vibrant, it’s brilliant. And man, its alive!

Jeff Hemmings

Website: royalbloodband.com

Facebook: facebook.com/RoyalBloodUK

Twitter: twitter.com/royalblooduk