This is the fourth album from US hard rock band Royal Thunder.
Rebuilding the Mountain contains 42 minutes of professionally crafted rock music. Taking influence from a range of places, this is music that’s expressive, hook-filled, and underpinned by a depth of content.
Rebuilding the Mountain combines emotion, melody, atmosphere, and catchiness in disarming ways. The band’s songwriting is strong, offering the listener a lean approach that’s without filler, yet still has the time and ability to build compelling soundscapes. Elements of 70s rock are mixed with touches of grunge, blues, and psychedelia to produce the sort of music that’s instantly rewarding, yet also substantial in a way that keeps you returning in the long run.
This is very charismatic and engaging music. It’s vulnerable, but conceals a real power when it needs to. This well-realised personality is partially down to the talented vocals of the band’s singer, (who puts in a sterling performance throughout; her voice is potent and drenched in feeling), but not exclusively, as the rest of the music has a strong presence of its own.
Rebuilding the Mountain, despite its obvious accessibility, is a dark and subtle album. It creeps and crawls up to you, closer and closer, over multiple spins, daring you to dig deeper and deeper. Its pained depths are hidden in plain sight, constantly burying themselves into your psyche with every rotation of this beguiling record. There’s great beauty here, but also great heartache and anguish. Royal Thunder exist in the eye of the beholder, but whatever the individual truth of Rebuilding the Mountain is for any given listener, for me, this is an album to savour.
Essential listening for any fan of honest, heartfelt rock music.
Wonderbox Metal 