{"id":5955,"date":"2012-05-22T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2012-05-22T00:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=5955"},"modified":"2013-06-01T14:17:08","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T14:17:08","slug":"album-review-royal-thunder-cvi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-royal-thunder-cvi\/","title":{"rendered":"ROYAL THUNDER – CVI (2012) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

ROYAL THUNDER
CVI<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nRelapse (2012)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Atlanta thunder gods Royal Thunder make their label debut with the blistering CVI<\/em>. While their label home may be best known for bands that display crushing brutality and its speed denizens, Royal Thunder break the mould with their own brand of down-tuned rock\u2019n\u2019roll that is equal parts 70s Heart and Saint Vitus. It\u2019s big, loud and ugly, but at the same time it\u2019s got a classy edge that keeps it one step in front of the stoner rock bands for the most part.<\/p>\n

The album opens with the killer riffs of \u2018Parsonz Curse\u2019. The song is a seven minute and fourteen second monolith that firmly establishes vocalist \/ bassist Mlny Parsonz as a force to be reckoned with. \u2018Whispering World\u2019 brings that early 70s vibe into focus with a never-ending lead guitar that makes you feel like you should be seeing cheesy coloured graphics in front of the band on stage (\u00e0 la Heart and Jefferson Airplane). The rockin\u2019 \u2018No Good\u2019, dynamic bookmark \u2018Blackwater Vision\u2019 and the acid-trip laden \u2018Minus\u2019 lend even more credence to the comparison. <\/p>\n

CVI<\/em> isn\u2019t all about the throwback sound though. The slow build and absolutely monster riffage of \u2018Shake And Shift\u2019 prove that Royal Thunder can bring the heavy anytime they want and deliver it better (and more accessibly) than any of today\u2019s big bands (I\u2019m looking at you Mastodon and Down). \u2018Scary Witch\u2019 shows the band get a little more down and dirty, plodding into unquestionably stoner metal waters. While the song is as dynamic as they come, you have to really like this genre to keep coming back to the song. The slow starting \u2018Drown\u2019 picks up nicely and features some downright insane drumming that will go a long way to convincing fans of progressive music that Royal Thunder may appeal to them as well. <\/p>\n

Overall, this is a truly excellent debut album. It\u2019s very open-ended, maybe even inconsistent, yet it manages to somehow stay cohesive for the most part. Listening to CVI<\/em> for the first time is like taking a really long roller coaster ride blindfolded! Repeated listens hold up almost as well, revealing a pretty musically complex album bit by bit. If you are looking for something heavy, beautiful and just plain rockin\u2019 then you must not miss out on Royal Thunder\u2019s debut album! Fans of Orange Goblin, Electric Wizard, Saint Vitus, early Heart, late Led Zeppelin<\/a>, Down, Mastodon and the like will find a lot to love here, but I can also see the band appealing to fans of bands like Pink Floyd, Rush, King\u2019s X and fans of other progressive bands\u2019 darker sides. <\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ROYAL THUNDERCVI Relapse (2012)Rating: 8\/10 Atlanta thunder gods Royal Thunder make their label debut with the blistering CVI. While their label home may be best known for bands that display crushing brutality and its speed denizens, Royal Thunder break the mould with their own brand of down-tuned rock\u2019n\u2019roll that is equal parts 70s Heart and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,291],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-royal-thunder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5955"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12004,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5955\/revisions\/12004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}