Lots of things had been written two years ago when Relapse re-released the debut ep of this band from Atlanta... This old label - specialized almost exclusively in brutal stuff (DM, Grind, Sludge), at least during ages- suddenly signed an unknown band into a kind of weird progressive Hard Rock ! first this was pretty much intriguing, but quickly the conclusion was that they did a very daring gamble, finally pretty successful...
R.T. took their time to write this very awaited debut album but (from what I've read recently in an interview) in fact worked as titans during 2 full years, rehearsing again and again, enriching their style but also strenghtening the cohesion between the music and the vocals. This you can quickly hear on "CVI", just as you can always look for a filler or weaker moments, there's none in this pretty memorable hour !!!
Leaded by Mlny Parsonz on vocals (+ Bass too) the quatuor evolutes on the borders of several styles : Rock, Stoner, Psychedelic, Southern... all this you can find in "CVI" with Mlny's voice as hypnotic guideline ! Beside this, the fact of belonging to the Atlanta's scene and displaying (rather) heavy sounds can remind here and there some hints of Mastodon, Kylesa or Black Tusk... even if R.T. isn't as much Metal in my opinion which ultimately is a distinctive force to stand out from the masses, in other words I think they have more to do with the range of traditionnal Southern (Hard) Rock than Sludge Metal.
I'm more used with female vocals in Doom than in Rock in general where I feel her references must certainly be found; I have read about lots of names from Janis Joplin to Juliette Lewis, nothing really striking; I would agree more easily with Relapse who cite Johnette Napolitano from Concrete Blonde ...
You've easily guessed it, Mlny's powerful and soulful voice makes pretty much in ROYAL THUNDER's originality but that wouldn't be sufficient in itself without a sense of composition more than above the average.
With a slight but regular retro/vintage sound, tempos vary from pretty dense and powerful ("Parsonz curse", "whispering world", "no good"), to more atmospheric ("blue" or the doomy "sleeping witch"), charming ("minus") or psycheledically progressive with nice little jams and introspective parts ("south of somewhere", "drown")... One could eventually argue on the order of the songs but this alternation of moods and also in the length of the songs, added to the luminous tone of Mlny's voice, make the overall fresh and constantly catchy. Undoubtly "CVI" reveals ROYAL THUNDER as one of the most interesting new bands from the States -all Heavy styles confounded- and its richness let expect numerous exciting perspectives towards their future stuff !!! Now let yourself float in this enchanting experience...
http://www.relapse.com/label/cvi-cd.html
https://www.facebook.com/RoyalThunderMusic
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