Royal Blood

This is the first album by the duo of Mike Kerr, who plays bass and sings, and drummer Ben Thatcher. Warner Bros. Records released it on 22 August 2014, produced by the band with Tom Dalgety. There is no guitar on it at all. Kerr splits his bass across several amplifiers and distortion stages so that the guitar range and the bass range sound at once, and two people carry the mass of four. The songs are short, the riffs repeat and the singing sits high and plain; "Out of the Black", "Figure It Out" and "Little Monster" all state their riff in the first few seconds and ride it to the end. The band formed in 2011. Kerr came home from nine months in Australia, was met at the airport by Thatcher, started rehearsing the next day and played to friends in a Brighton bar. In the summer of 2013 "Out of the Black" and "Come On Over" went to radio, and attention grew after Matt Helders of Arctic Monkeys wore one of their shirts on stage at Glastonbury. The album entered the UK chart at number one as the fastest-selling British rock debut in three years, topped the Irish and Scottish charts, was nominated for the 2014 Mercury Prize, and won the duo Best British Group at the 2015 Brit Awards.