Royal Blood are back. The taut rhythms and electrifying riffs that burst from their current single ‘Trouble’s Coming’ herald a bold evolution in their sound as they stride confidently towards next year’s release of their highly anticipated third album.
The reaction has been phenomenal. A month later, it’s already approaching 6 million streams, having debuted as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record and hit Radio 1’s A-list. The duo landed on the cover of ROCK THIS, Spotify’s flagship global rock playlist, while breaking the Top 20 at the Alternative and Active Rock formats in the States. Add support from alternative radio across the globe, plus international media attention spanning NME and Clash to Rolling Stone and Spin, and Royal Blood look set to make the biggest impact of an all-conquering career.
Their momentum continues as they today share the official video for ‘Trouble’s Coming’. Their granite-heavy bass and drums attack is now flavoured by insistent grooves inspired by Daft Punk, Justice and Phillipe Zdar. They called upon Dir. LX to capture a fresh spin on their visual style. The director, best known for his work on UK rap and grime icons such as Dave, Bugzy Malone and Kojo Funds, takes his cues from Mike Kerr’s ominous lyrics to create a video that pulsates with foreboding atmospherics and cinematic, neo-noir flair.
When Royal Blood started work on their third album, which they largely produced themselves at The Church and Sleeper Sounds in London, ‘Trouble’s Coming’ proved to be the turning point in the creative process. It concisely tees up what to expect from the record: a very organic infusion of their visceral hard rock sting with a dance-tinged rhythm that grooves rather than pummels.
In the space of just two albums, Royal Blood have ascended to become one of the world’s biggest and most vital rock bands. The Brighton duo have scored two UK #1 albums – their self-titled double-Platinum debut from 2014 and 2017’s ‘How Did We Get So Dark?’ – in the process selling 2 million albums worldwide. Their acclaim has included the BRIT Award for Best British Group plus further accolades at the NME and Kerrang! Awards as well as a Mercury Prize nomination. What’s more, they’ve made a major international impact, hitting the Top 10 in a further seven territories and peaking at #2 on the US Alternative Album chart. Further US success has included three #1 hits at Rock Radio, plus four Top 20 records at Alternative Radio.
A huge draw in the live arena, Royal Blood’s most recent full-scale UK and Ireland headline tour saw them perform in front of 100,000 people, including 30,000 over three sold-out nights at London’s Alexandra Palace. Key festivals have included Glastonbury (where they famously discovered, mid-set, that their second album had debuted at #1), Reading and Leeds. Highlights of their extensive international touring include huge North American tours with Queens of the Stone Age and Foo Fighters, plus headline shows as far afield as Los Angeles, Tokyo and Sydney.
