Track Review: Royal Blood 'Little Monster'

There’s been a lot of talk about Royal Blood. Having featured heavily on a plethora of tastemakers 2014 tip lists, the duo from Brighton have been riding a wave of press junkets and studio performances for the past couple of months.

So far we have two tracks from the band to listen to (excluding live cuts), single ‘Out of the Black’ and the B-side ‘Come on Over’. Both feature heavy riffs and an uncompromising full on approach. So with the hype machine in meltdown what have the two-piece got in store for us on their latest release?

‘Little Monster’ carries on from where the band left off with a thumping metal riff reminiscent of Queens of the Stone Age’s ‘Mexicola’ kicking off proceedings. All good so far, but the track really comes into its own when it breaks into a bluesy chorus with a melody so infectious it should come with a warning.

Vocalist Mike Kerr once again provides a wall of noise courtesy of his bass guitar, whilst also installing a newfound sense of groove to the mixture, something lacking in the techy ‘Out of the Black’ and frenetic ‘Come on Over’.

With a solo and drum fills aplenty to follow, the track does more than enough to earn a spot on your next playlist. The question is can ‘Royal Blood’ continue to produce the goods? With an album expected later this year, and a string of mammoth gigs supporting the Arctic Monkeys we can only hope.

No pressure lads.

Alex Jones