Royal Thunder – CVI
Royal Thunder – CVI CD (Relapse)
What’s in a name? Often, more than one might think. And in the case of Royal Thunder, plenty. This is a metal band – on the surface, at least – and the ‘thunder’ is evident with every earth-shuddering bass line unleashed by Miny Parsons and every equally forceful drum bash let loose by Lee Smith. The ‘royal’ may seem less evident on the surface, but any thoughtful length of time spent with the songs on ‘CVI’ reveal a regal feel – at times reminiscent of heavy metal kings Iron Maiden (though typically played at a much slower pace) and at times akin to prog-rock royalty such as Rush and King’s X. Royal Thunder hail from Atlanta, Georgia, and certainly share some traits with their heavy music kinfolk from that area – in particular Mastodon (heavy, progressive, engaging, original, at times off-the-wall) and Baroness (all of the above, plus an inexplicable obsession with colors) – but this is a beast all its own. It would be easy to state that the band’s trump card is Miny Parsons’ vocals, which veer from angelic grace to devilish aggression with an innate conviction and a natural flow unlike that of any other vocalist in heavy music today, but that might be too simple. Royal Thunder has an additional trump card, one that isn’t even hidden up its sleeve. They write the songs they want to write. They play the songs they want to play. They don’t care what anyone thinks. And it all works. Damn, does it ever…. Royal Thunder – which is rounded out by guitarists Josh Weaver and Josh Coleman – can do a straight take on Black Sabbath style doom (‘Parsonz Curse’, ‘Whispering World’), head into a glorious spaced-out prog-rock epic that melds Voivod with King’s X (‘Shake And Shift’), detour into a stoned-out-70s rocker reminiscent of Legs Diamond (‘No Good’), and merge back onto the highway with an indescribable jam with tribal drumming and a funked-up Geddy Lee bass line lying under a slowed-down Iron Maiden style guitar attack (the Baroness-approved ‘Blue’). And that’s just the first half of this all-around incredible album. The second half of the album aims for pure heaviness, and does so by sticking close to all of the time-honored traditions of doom. ‘Sleeping Witch’ is a brutal attack on the senses, akin to Sleep or Church Of Misery. ‘South Of Somewhere’ is a slower-than-slow doom ballad that concludes with the absolute most metal payoff of any such song ever recorded. Ever. ‘Drown’ begins super slow, and definitely has a Down feel – OK, it’s pretty much a Down song… or really three Down songs twisted together (much like that ultra-heavy riff in ‘Shake And Shift’ is a wonderfully inventive amalgam of two already ultra-heavy King’s X riffs, ‘Shot Of Love’ and ‘The World Around Me’) – and it is as captivating as anything the boys from NOLA have unleashed to date. The final two tracks – ‘Minus’ and ‘Black Water Vision’ – fall into line with the other 3 songs on ‘side two’, mixing slow doom goodness highlighted by the epic beauty of Parsons’ voice with sledgehammer riffage that attacks from all sides. In whole, ‘CVI’ is damn near a masterpiece of modern metal – an uncompromising and thoroughly unique journey through heaven and hell that commands repeated listens. The Impaler @impalerspeaks
