Brighton rockers return with a new riff

Tuesday, 10 November 2026 at 00:05

With their fifth studio album Dead Company, Royal Blood abandon recent dance-rock experiments to return to their core sound

When Royal Blood released a fleeting teaser for their single "Ten Over Ten" after a year long radio silence, it carried the weight of a sudden weather warning. Rock fans braced for impact, and the Brighton duo delivered. Built on a thrashy, Motörhead-style march, singer-bassist Mike Kerr growled over a wall of heavy bass tone: "Everything or nothing / That’s how I roll."

It set the tone for Dead Company, the band's fifth full-length album, released via Warner Records. Following the dance-groove textures of 2021's Josh Homme-assisted Typhoons and the sonic varied explorations of 2023’s Back To The Water Below, the new record represents a deliberate course correction. Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher have stripped away the polish to revisit the aggressive, bass-and-drum dynamics that catapulted them to arena status and earned them a Mercury Prize nomination a decade ago.

The instinct to strip things back came directly from their desire to capture their live performance dynamic. Speaking backstage after a secret set at Reading Festival, Thatcher explained the philosophy behind the project: "It has the energy of our first record, and the excitement of that. But we’ve four albums’ experience of writing songs... It’s something that we really wanted to bring to the stage again: that raw, unedited feeling of playing rock music." Kerr added that the pair deliberately aimed for an unrelenting pace: "The idea was, 'Can we make a record where it never lets off?' I commend anyone who can make it to the end, really. It's pretty brutal."

Critically, Dead Company has been received as a triumphant flex of heavy-rock muscle. Reviewing the record for NME, critic Rishi Shah noted that the furious title track—which quickly secured a placement on the EA Sports FC 27 soundtrack—eclipses much of their early output through cutthroat production and turbulent basslines. Shah observed that while the album revisits their roots, atmospheric tracks like "l" and "The Closer" offer necessary breathing room, proving the duo can evolve without sacrificing their core power.

Other industry reviewers echoed the album's breathless execution. Writing for Kerrang!, music critic Sam Law awarded the album high praise, highlighting its "AC/DC-esque commitment to breathless, no-frills rock 'n' roll" and noting that tracks like "Swallow The Bomb" and "Mother Never Told You" find the duo operating in peak fight mode. Meanwhile, TotalNtertainment praised Kerr’s scintillating bass work and Thatcher’s ferocious drumming, calling the release a sharp reminder of why Royal Blood were hailed as a breath of fresh air when they first emerged.

Rather than repeating past achievements, Dead Company marks a calculated reset for Royal Blood. By channeling decade-tested chemistry back into lean, high-velocity rock, Kerr and Thatcher have delivered an album that proves their foundational formula remains one of the most potent forces in modern British rock.

Sources