Review / 200 Words Or Less
Royal Blood
How Did We Get So Dark?

Warner Bros. (2017) Kevin Fitzpatrick

Royal Blood – How Did We Get So Dark? cover artwork
Royal Blood – How Did We Get So Dark? — Warner Bros., 2017

When English duo Royal Blood released their self-titled debut in 2014, i got into an argument with a friend of mine as to how many members were in the band - my friend insisting that there had to be “at least three - because just listen”.

Of course we now know that this friend was very wrong and he has lived the last four years in shame and seclusion somewhere in the channel islands.

He wasn’t wrong in the sense that it sure didn’t sound like two dudes making all that noise, but if that debut sounded like a full band, then Royal Blood’s sophomore release How Did We Get So Dark sounds downright orchestral.

I think partial credit could certainly go to producer Tom Dalgety, who along with sole band members Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher created a lush, warm, full sounding record.

But Thatcher and Kerr continue to create hook-laden solid rock that’s at once garage sing-along and stadium anthem rock. Stompers like “Look Like You Know” and “Lights Out” are a solid counter-measure to more nuanced tunes like “Don’t Tell”.

Anyone who had the good fortune to see them open up for Queens of the Stone Age this fall watched them tear shit up. They’re young, they’re hungry and they know how to deliver the goods, live and in the studio.

Royal Blood – How Did We Get So Dark? cover artwork
Royal Blood – How Did We Get So Dark? — Warner Bros., 2017

Related news

Foo Fighters announce 2015 tour

Posted in Tours on November 18, 2014

Recently-posted album reviews

Personality Cult

Dilated
Dirtnap (2025)

I had a hard time starting this review. I can’t help coming back to the fact that it sounds like Marked Men. It does, maybe intentionally so, as Dilated is the second of Personality Cult’s albums that is produced by Jeff Burke of Marked Men and Radioactivity. But I don’t necessarily like to say a band sounds like another band … Read more

Various Artists

Her Head's On Fire/Arms Like Roses - Split
Double Helix (2025)

Her Head’s On Fire (NY, NY) and Arms Like Roses (New Haven, CT) team up on this split 7” with two new tracks (one each band) of post-hardcore tunes that are both massive and melodic in their own distinct ways. "Universal" is the track from Her Head’s On Fire. Recorded by the band’s guitarist Jeff Dean, "Universal" came from the … Read more

Dead Bars

All Dead Bars Go To Heaven
Iodine (2025)

Dead Bars has a unique talent of taking the everyday, the experiences you see and live all the time, and shining a new light on them to make them personal and interesting. I've written about it before, yet it's my job to say this again and to make it interesting. It's what Dead Bars does, so it only seems fitting … Read more