Ελληνικά
Genre: Rock/Metal
Country: United States of America
Label: Relapse
Year: 2015
Ι’ve been following Royal Thunder’s music since the reissue of their first, self-titled EP via Relapse records in 2010. The afforementioned EP appeared a year or two after the spectacular explosion that took place in the doom metal genre and the female fronted rock/metal scene. Royal Thunder fall into the latter category, thanks to their singer, a musician with plenty of talent to show, Mlny Parsonz. As a final introductory remark, let me share with you my opinion that the band rightfully deserves the attention they’ve earned and the fanbase they’ve built through their creativity and touring activity. Let’s move on now…
Earlier in 2015 the time for the band’s sophomore full-length album finally arrived. Its name is “Crooked Doors” and consists of eleven tracks. Although Royal Thunder in their new opus do not try any surprising experiments (at least, not extensively), the final result is of a somewhat different nature in comparison with their debut album “CVI”. The previous work was more powerful and more metal-oriented, I dare say. In contrast, the new one is characterized both by an overarching emhasis on melody and by a shift to more mellow tones. It’s not an easy task to spot the artists and bands Royal Thunder were influenced by, this time; to my ear, only a most welcome Roky Erickson vibe can easily be traced in the beginning of the “Glow” track. So, the band goes on to deliver some genuine music, while making an attempt to evolve their style by adding more melody for good measure. For instance, the bluesy “The Bear I” is a flawless piece of soulful music. The one and only drawback of this fresh approach is that it feels as if it lacks at certain moments the enthusiasm the band has shown in the past.
All in all, even though I’d rather the guitar sound be slightly sharper and the band crank it up a bit more often, nevertheless, after I’ve given the “Crooked Doors” a fair amount of listens, I could say it has nice flow overall and contains some artful moments indeed.
4.5/6
