Royal Blood – ‘Dead Company’ review: Brighton riff lords flex their massive muscles

When Royal Blood broke their year-long social media silence in June with this mouth-watering teaser for ‘Ten Over Ten’, the first single from fifth album ‘Dead Company’, they were effectively issuing the sound of an extreme weather warning. After rock fans evacuated and braced for impact, the Brighton duo fulfilled this initial promise of a heavy new direction, as the song descended into a thrashy, rampant Motörhead march. “Everything or nothing / That’s how I roll”, cries vocalist Mike Kerr, who matches the track’s attitude atop “the bed of an earthquake shaking”. READ MORE: Royal Blood talk new album ‘Dead Company’ at Reading 2026: “It’s pretty relentless” Since broadening their framework on groovier, Josh Homme-assisted third album ‘Typhoons’ (2021), the more flat-out unification of Kerr’s heavily distorted bass with Ben Thatcher’s robust drumming has been a road less travelled for Royal Blood. But ‘Ten Over Ten’ hinted ‘Dead Company’ would be a ticket back to 2014, suggesting the sound that secured Royal Blood a Mercury Prize nomination, BRIT Award and catalysed their ascent to arenas would return on album five. “It has the energy of our first record,” Thatcher told NME recentl...