Royal Blood

With the explosive combination of Mike Kerr's grizzly, distorted bass riffs and Ben Thatcher's thunderous drum lines, Sussex, England-based duo Royal Blood emerged in 2014 making one of the mightiest rackets the UK music scene had heard in years. Frontman Mike Kerr had spent his childhood crashing around in various groups in his hometown of Worthing and nearby Brighton, but after returning from a spell in Australia, his old bandmate Ben Thatcher picked him up from the airport and the seeds of Royal Blood were quickly sown. Spending a feverish 2013 playing pubs, open-mic nights and as many gigs as they could, they went on to tour with the Arctic Monkeys, released the single "Out of the Black" and ended up as the only guitar act on the BBC Sound of 2014 shortlist. Their 2014 self-titled debut album stormed to the top of the UK Charts and drew comparisons with Queens of the Stone Age and the Black Keys. With endorsements from Jimmy Page and Dave Grohl, their reputation as a fierce, bombastic live act continued to grow with high-profile festival slots and tours with the Foo Fighters. They were named Best British Group at the BRIT Awards in 2015 and won the Q Award for Best Live Act the same year, before making a triumphant return with a slightly more melodic, yet still giant, stomping sound on their second album How Did We Get So Dark? in 2017. The band returned in 2021 with their largely self-produced third album Typhoons, which saw them add more danceable elements to their sound. Their fourth album Back to the Water Below followed in September 2023, which was notably self-produced in its entirety by the duo and rocketed to the top of the UK albums chart.

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