Royal Blood Prove Rock & Roll Is Here to Stay on Ferocious New Album — Dead Company
By : Josh Kitchen / November 10, 2026
Luckily, rock and roll is once again having a moment. The Gene Simmonses of the world would have you believe that rock is dead, the best is behind us, and we might as well turn back now. For music lovers with the ears to hear, however, we know that's bullshit. Not only is rock and roll very much alive, but there are bands out there bringing a new generation of fans to the genre and putting rock back where it deserves to live — in arenas and stadiums — at a time when AI-generated music is threatening to strip the humanity from our listening experiences.
Bands like Geese and Fontaines D.C. are proving that rock and roll is here to stay, and English rockers Royal Blood have returned with their fifth studio album, *Dead Company*, perhaps their loudest and most ferocious record yet. Mike Kerr (vocals and bass) and Ben Thatcher (drums) return to their roots on the new album — just two guys letting it rip in the studio, showing us what's possible when you let pure, unadulterated, unbridled rock and roll light your eardrums on fire.
On "Nowhere All Along," the band slinks through an addictive groove, while the title track opens with thunderous drumming and fiery riffs, recalling the sludgiest corners of Queens of the Stone Age's desert rock. Along the way, the band finds room for some of the more beautiful things life has to offer two musicians who've been at it together for over a decade. On "Mother Never Told You," Thatcher, a new father, incorporates the heartbeat from his son's ultrasound into the song's rhythm — a lasting reminder of the beautiful ways in which our lives inform our music, and our music enriches our lives.
I caught up with the band to talk about the state of rock and roll, the music that's inspiring them, what it means to be Royal Blood more than a decade into their career, and the excitement of bringing these new songs to the stage in 2027.
Something I found interesting in the press materials was this feeling that you were wasting time or needed to get back to making music. But when I zoom out, this is your third record in five years, which is a pretty fast pace! And the result sounds so fresh and energetic. Can you talk about that feeling of needing to keep moving, even when you've already been so productive?
Mike:
I think because of the nature of how fast everything moves these days, there's probably quite an unhealthy culture of feeling like you can't stop. I know for me, not working on stuff can make me feel unproductive and anxious. But I think as time's gone by, I've realized the benefits of perspective. Who knew perspective was actually good and useful in creativity? It's funny, like you're saying, we've been telling everyone we took a break, but we only took about four months off. Everyone keeps talking about it like we've taken a decade away and come back gray. But yeah, I think a lot of the energy of the record is also, like every record, you're reacting to the last thing you did. And I think for us, this kind of feels like the polar opposite of the record we just made. Just by having not played like that in a long time, it felt brand new again. And I think you can hear the excitement. You mentioned the freshness, and that's how it felt to us. Somehow it felt like new territory, despite it being so raw still.
You also approached recording differently this time, stripping away some of the usual preparation and just playing together. Listening to Dead Company, I hear a band that's completely confident in what it does. You've been Royal Blood for over a decade now. How does it feel to make music with all that experience behind you compared to when you first started?
Mike:
I think that's one of the elements. Well, thanks for saying that. I think one of the things we've enjoyed about going back to this style of playing is that we're also bringing along with us the experience of playing together this long and having four records under our belt. And I think that's been great. We're just excited to get it out and start playing it live as well.
Ben, your drumming on this record is furious. The songs have so much energy and momentum. I imagine you're itching to get out there and play them live.
Ben:
It was a fun one to create and record, for sure. A lot of energy. The songs are a lot faster. We've gone into this other gear, I think. But I was just really excited about the songs and the parts that we've managed to get into them. Because, like Mike was saying, we've recorded in many different ways. One of them being, for a record, you would kind of learn the songs after you've put them down and tracked it all. You learn it for live. But this time, we've flipped that on its head and have been playing in a room together again, making sure that those fundamental elements feel great in a room together. Because then it's about capturing that, capturing that energy and feel. For us, it doesn't take that long to record them. It's quite a snappy process, but you have to have a lot of energy. You can't come in thinking it's going to happen on your sixth take. It's going to happen in the first or second take of that day. So yeah, it was just a lot of fun. A lot of fun to make this one.
That energy really comes through. It reminds me of some of that furious, forward-moving rock music from the early 2000s, like Foo Fighters' One by One. I also read that one of you asked, "How do we set these speakers on fire?" while recording. It feels like we're in an interesting moment where people are craving guitar-driven rock music again, and you've made such an energetic record at exactly that time.
Ben:
I think people are craving real things again, you know? We're coming through a world of AI and computers and editing and stuff, and there's this force going against it, which is live music. When we got shut away for COVID, it was about people being creative and still trying to create music because the live scene had gone. A record didn't really make much sense because you couldn't tour it or anything like that. So there were all these ways people were trying to keep the music scene alive, really. And it became very introspective, making these tunes and putting them out on TikTok or Instagram. Very computer-based.
I watched gigs from my computer with a load of other people on Zoom, and it became this thing where that's how it was made for a little bit. And then when these restrictions were lifted again, it's like the people who were making that music don't really know how to get into the outside world and play it. And we kind of had the opposite effect. We were lost during that time a little bit. We were creating a record, but we found ourselves coming to a halt. We were like, "Well, do we really want to get involved in all of this? Do we want people watching us on their laptops?" No, we don't. We want people to be at that show because there's a feeling about live music. So yeah, I can't even remember what your question was now, but I think I've answered it!
I think you did! I was talking about how exciting it is that people still crave this kind of music. And after being unable to experience live music for so long, I think people want it even more.
Ben:
Now we're seeing loads more bands coming through. Because playing music is fun, and playing gigs is amazing. Having that connection with people is amazing.
Totally. A band like Geese is a great example. you have young people getting excited about the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Ozzy and Deep Purple again. It must be cool to see that enthusiasm returning when you've been making this music the whole time.
Mike:
I think rock's always the genre that's constantly having its pulse checked, and we're getting updates on how alive or dead it is. Even when our first record came out, rock wasn't trendy. And I think that's honestly why we were so taken aback that we had the success with our first record that we did, because we were making it thinking, "This is for a very select group of people, really," given what was going on musically at the time. So I think for that to come back around like that is really cool. And I think what you're saying is also hopeful, that those things are resonating with people again.
What are you guys listening to right now? Any bands or artists you're particularly excited about?
Mike:
For me, two of my favorite bands at the minute are Bad Nerves. Have you heard of those guys?And Bodega, who are from New York. Those are my two.
Ben:
The new Fontaines D.C. record. I like that. And yeah, what other bands have I been listening to? There's a band from Brighton. They're these kids who just kind of rock up in the skate park, who are fucking cool. They're called... I can't remember what their names are now. Bones Ate Arfa, they're called. Yeah, they're these punk rock kids who have this energy about them, which I can hear early Royal Blood in their music.
That's got to feel strange, being an influence on another band. Every band starts out with its own influences, but now you're becoming that band for somebody else.
Mike:
Yeah, just how it works, though. I think every band has kind of started that way. That's how you start, I think.
Ben:
I think what's stranger is when we saw our covers band, Royal Monster, and you realize that there are two guys who love your music so much that they pretend to be you for an amount of time at these shows. And they kill it.
Ben, you incorporated your child's ultrasound heartbeat into "Mother Never Told You." It makes the record feel alive in a very literal sense. Can you talk about bringing that experience into the music?
Ben:
It's special. I think with Mike's lyrics, with all the stuff that he's written on the record, it is your personal life coming out in some way, and it's reflecting. The lyrics are always reflected—well, not always, but for this record, they've been reflected by the music and the power that that's had. And I think just little things like the beginning of "Mother Never Told You," little bits of inspiration, or almost creativity, and how your personal life can be involved in that and how it kind of gets in that way. Especially for me, I don't write any lyrics, you know? So saying something in that is... Yeah, it's hard for a drummer to have anything that personal put into a song. But it's in there, and it's cool.
I feel like when your son gets older and starts really listening to these records, hearing that is going to mean a whole lot to him.
Ben:
What I love about it is music lives forever, man. And so that will always be there.
Finally, the album closer is absolutely epic. It reminded me of 13, that underrated Black Sabbath reunion record with Ozzy. There's a similar sense of finality that I love. I imagine it's going to be an incredible song to play live. How excited are you to get these songs out onstage?
Mike:
That track was weirdly something we had in our back pocket before we even started. And then as the record developed, it was like, "We need to give this song a home," and it obviously has to end a record. So why not this one? And yeah, also, I think that song we thought would be great live. And I think the whole record we've made, we've built from that perspective. Before we recorded anything, we were playing them live, so we weren't kind of going, "Wonder if this will be good live?" We were like, "It is good live, and now we're going to record it."
Comments