Royal Thunder – Rebuilding The Mountain
Spinefarm Records – 2023
Rock, Stoner, Seventies, Psych, Hard, Prog
Rated: *****
We never neglected to mention a new release by Royal Thunder. Which is perfectly logical, since we absolutely adore their sound and love almost everything they put out. (They even reached the Number Eight spot of the Stoner HiVe Top 20 Countdown of 2012 according to your votes with CVI and Number Twenty with Wick in 2017.) And their brand-new album Rebuilding The Mountain cements that devotion even further. The Royal Thunder comes in three-form nowadays, drummer Evan Diprima who left on good terms back in 2018, returned a few years later because he could not live without the band, just like the rest of us. But guitar player Will Fiore has left. So, Diprima, together with guitarist Josh Weaver and bassist and highly recognizable vocalist Mlny Parsonz, went forth to rebuild their sound by creating their new ten track album Rebuilding The Mountain. It’s their fourth official full-sized album and it’s a way for them to not only rebuild the band but rebuild their life as well. All three of them suffered from seeing their life spiral out of control and fall apart, in their own various ways. But the three have found each other and what they can do together again, and these forty minutes of pristine heavy rock is a testament to that fact. Royal Thunder means earthshattering power, lightning strikes of wild energy and a pure untamable life force. But it also means grace, elegance, and poise. And the way the three manage to use all these aspects in a perfectly balanced way, is what makes Royal Thunder so very special. That, and of course that amazing voice of Mlny Parsonz. A throat grabbing, raw, bluesy, electrifying, and soulful voice that manages to convey whatever emotion it wants as well as making concrete walls extend outwards with pure force. Mlny Parsonz, seems to be able to do it all and does it with a distinct and very own color in her voice. Even though a lot was written during the pandemic, sending each other part by part, it was recorded live in the studio. The forty minutes speed by, even though most of the record is delivered in a mid-tempo romp. Simply due to the fact that all tracks have this special something to them, that gives them their own identity, while keeping the entire record going in the same color and character. Drag Me opens the ball, with the slow build up at first, a gradual build up follows and then moves to a faster later half, showing off a lot of what they distill during the course of the following tracks. The way this opener works towards the climax, so poised and nuanced, is brilliance put to music. It’s the first of ten tracks, all of which have this uncanny ability to make you feel like you are disappearing into them, lyrics filled with wonderment, desire, pain, and lost calls for help. Live To Live, opening with beautiful almost serene guitar work, followed by an amazing solo by Weaver later on, and what sounds like a ventilator slowly dispelling the air around the notes. And once again, that voice, steering ever more towards this crystal clear and restrained vocalization as the track goes on and winds down. Showing off she does not scare away from using that more fragile side of hers now. Which is another thing the other two seems to excel at, this time around as well; for the grace and elegance portrait by both drums and guitar; often shows this more daring less is more approach. Where earlier songs used to display the more is more attitude. And this is more Royal Thunder whatever way you choose to look at it. We had to wait six years for this and perhaps they all had to go through all that hardship and tribulation they had to go through, perhaps showing once again that sometimes pain and strife is needed to get those diamonds out, that those trials pressurize into amazing art. Rebuilding The Mountain, sounds like a trio that is committed to reaching the summit…
(Written by JK)
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