I'll just pretend like I didn't go on two-year hiatus from contributing to the old Bandcamp Bonanza feature here at the Ripple Effect. Although I wasn't actively writing many music blurbs or even listening to the massive amounts that I was in prior months, my collection continued to outgrow the capacity of my record shelves and I remained a music junkie while taking a break from the socials and laying low in the online community. Without the bountiful supply of tunes made accessible on site like bandcamp, Spotify and blogs like this, none of this madness would sustain. Today, I'm doing what I haven't done in several years, and that is to dedicate an entire post to one album review. Normally I share more album in short blurb style review bursts, but tonight I'm feeling frisky and this album really pushed all my buttons so here goes nothing.
I recently discovered the beauty while digging through the discover section on the bandcamp home page using the filtering options set to something similar to the screen shot below:
Anyway, the cover art drew me in and as I let this one play my intuition told me there was something special going on. The band is called Royal Horses from Hattiesburg, Mississippi and I dig the heck out of it. At the moment I'm writing this there is myself and one more supporter on their bandcamp page, so either I'm totally nuts, or this needs some more attention.
It starts off with a banjo heavy intro that ultimately surrenders to a more guitar-centric tone complete with standup bass and organ. The vocals are honed with a southern grit and polished twang leaving you feeling like you just left a Drive-By Truckers concert for the very first time. The songs are of stories, written with a sense of purpose and evoke an emotional response. The production is pristine allowing the band to let it all hang out as evidenced with songs like "Lungs" with a heavy atmosphere and sinister tone appearing to be about suffering from lung cancer and pleading for salvation. "Salvation sat and crossed herself, she called the devil partner. Wisdom burned upon a shelf, Who'll kill the raging cancer. Seal the river at its mouth, Take the water prisoner. Fill the Skys with screams and cries and bathe in fiery answer".
Stunningly poetic and chilling in every sense of the word and it doesn't stop there. The entire album continues to build with an electric array of stoic harmony and captivating allure throughout the 10 blockbuster song set. With equal shades of southern country rock and progressive folk, Royal Horses surpasses the dominance its album cover suggests and gallops along at the level of other notable favorites of mine such as Blackberry Smoke, and Mike and the Moonpies. The lyrics contain ample amounts of whit, one-liners on almost every damn line, and the musicianship as shiny as the platinum dreams the album plugged into.
The album, released in November 2022, appears to be the bands second album after a couple singles and debut called a Modern Man's Way to Improve, released in December of 2020. Based on a quick scan of their Spotify page they flaunt a meager 460 monthly listeners, which is shocking but no surprise as I mentioned, it's me and one other fan supporting the album on bandcamp. Sometimes the best music is buried so deep even the aficionados don't know it exists. This is one of those bands and I found it by golly and am here to tell you about it. I am completely blown away on all counts and cannot wait for the record to be delivered.
10/10
