Royal Blood has been one of the most unique bands I’ve ever come across over the past decade since I heard “Little Monster” back in 2014. Blues rock duo, lead bass guitar, thumping drums, it blew my mind how insanely good their musicality was.

Their 2014 Debut Self-titled Album – flawless
“How Did We Get So Dark?” in 2017 – great follow-up!
“Typhoons” in 2021 – it was okay, it slowly grew on me.

Now in 2023, the band dropped “Back To The Water Below” last September 8th. I was going to listen to it on day 1, but life got in the way but never too late to start so here we are now.

Here are my thoughts on Royal Blood’s “Back To The Water Below” while on Transit.

When I started to listen to the first song, all I thought was they still had their sound: hard-hitting, fast, blues-riffy bass guitar, with amazingly mixed drums that you can feel the bass drum and snare just hit you like a couple of jabs in boxing training. I felt the energy, the hype, the stank face!

Little did I know that was the peak energy of the album and it just slowly faded away, it never looked back. The next few songs were okay here and there, but once again they did something that in my opinion is both the blessing and the curse of the band’s overall sound: Royal Blood does really good fast, hard-hitting songs.

What I mean by that is most of the fast, hard-hitting songs by Royal Blood have the presence, the power, the emotions, the anger, the badassery of what rock is commonly known for.

But when they do slow songs, I feel like it’s either they were just forced to put out other tonalities so that they don’t trap themselves to a particular style, or they just need to write better because midway through the album the energy fades away, and slowly leaning into the very dragging in my opinion, Arctic Monkeys’ 2018, and 2022 albums: Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, and The Car respectively.

I’m not saying Arctic Monkeys is bad, I’m merely referring to the energy of the songs. How did it make me feel? There should be a balance between energies between songs. I feel like Royal Blood was hungry when they started in 2014, but now they aren’t hungry as much and started to mellow down from their hard, blues-rock personality.

Hopefully, this album will grow on me in the future, but now, I’m just not feeling the vibe.

I’d give Royal Blood’s “Back To The Water Below” a solid 3.5 out of 5 ⭐ ⭐ ⭐