Around this time last year, I heard
Royal blood for the first time. “Out Of The Black” sounded at
once violent, forceful and almost brutal yet it was very melodic and at
times catchy. “Figure It Out” had the same force behind it but was more complex and had an
undeniable swing to it. They had that incredible sound too. Big,
thunderous drums and a guitar sound that seemed so meaty and
sonically diverse that it was hard to distinguish between bass and
guitar parts. But the overpowering thing about it was the tightness
of the playing. These were guys who had played together for a long
time and knew their material back to front, obviously. Imagine my
surprise then as I found out that there was only two of them, there
was no guitar and they had only been together for a matter of months
before recording the songs. I was impressed before, now I was amazed.
