Album Review: Royal Thunder - Rebuilding The Mountain

We can't stop the aging process, but we are in control of our maturity. Unfortunately, it seems a lot of us have never taken the idea of maturing to heart. We are still faced with a rock culture that is all about drinking and anger, where people still foolishly argue that drugs make you a more creative musician. So I find it rather interesting to encounter this new Royal Thunder album, because their story is one of maturity. They got sober, and they worked through their issues, before trying to come back as a band again. They put in the work to be better people, who are better equipped to be a band, and that's something to commend them for. Maturity might not be as easy to sell as hedonistic immaturity, but it makes much more of a statement.

Getting older and wiser isn't fun, and the music Royal Thunder are giving us on this album would not be described as being fun. It's meditative, it's reflective, and it carries the weight of understanding when it bursts into a loud rage. This isn't music playing up anger for the sake of sounding edgy, it's music that balances calm and rage in the same way we try to find balance in our lives. Some of this might be projection on my part, but our impressions are how music becomes alive.

There's also something to having an album about the struggles we face as humans being recorded live in the studio. Nothing is polished, nothing is following a rigid guide, it's all flowing in the manner it needs to. Even if it's imperceptible to us, the honesty of it is unmistakable.

"Rebuilding The Mountain" is not an easy listen, but nothing working through our issues is ever easy. There are moments, particularly when the band kicks into high gear, that are among their more vital. When the guitars ring out, and Mlny's voice roars with her echoing bellow, there is a tangible power to their sound. She has the ability to make us feel through her voice. When she lets out the long note before the climax of "Pull", I swear I can almost hear her vocal cords slowing down to echo the weariness of the song. It's one of those magical little moments in an already great song.

I consider this to be one of those 'mood' albums. It won't be right for every moment, but it's fantastic for when those times come along. It might not sound quite as good on a sunny summer day, but when the rain cancels your plans, it will be a fitting soundtrack to watching the dark clouds roll on by.

Royal Thunder are clearly trying to find their way back from painful times and self-destructive choices. I'm not in a position to say whether they have achieved that on a personal level, but they certainly have on a musical level. "Rebuilding The Mountain" is more than a first step back up out of the hole they were in, it's a powerful record that proves the work was all worth it in the end. Kudos to them for getting to this point.