May 29, 2020, is the release date of the latest Palaye Royale album, signed by Sumerian Records: The Bastards. With a little delay, we have listened to the 15 tracks from which it is composed for you, Nightowls.
The dystopian island of reality
The Palaye Royale has been able to rise in recent years, following a completely original style, crowned by an incisive and extravagant personality, which has conquered fans all over the world. With their latest album, they have done nothing but highlight their talent, highlighting some of the flaws of contemporary society.
To better affirm the ideas behind the musical lyrics, a comic book was created that talks about Obsidian, the dystopian island on which artists and thinkers live in harmony. However, threatened by the suffocating grip of politics and society, the inhabitants can only survive thanks to the use of gas masks. But, can hiding human torments be the only possibility of salvation?
In this seemingly fictional parallel world, there is a lot of reality. True and current concepts are expressed by the band, in a clear proclamation that aims to raise one’s individuality, as a key tool for not being suffocated in the coils of mass society.
However, in The Bastards, we find not only the darkest facets of the human soul, but also personal feelings that relate in particular to some of the darkest periods in the life of Remington Leith, lead singer of the group.
Review
As already mentioned, The Bastards consists of 15 tracks, a succession of songs that alternate between more reflective and personal lyrics, and more energetic and rhythmic songs.
The album opens with Little Bastards, with a high rhythm that falls particularly serious, almost psychedelic; the words of the text are few but of great effect. It continues with Massacre, The New American Dreams, in which energy bursts into an accusation of the unstable American political situation that has struggled through 2020.
Axiety, Nervous Breakdown and Lonely open Remington’s heart by bringing to the surface some personal wounds, due in part to the singer’s difficult childhood. His suffering, past but still present, is almost palpable and denounces the silence that too often descends on the problems we carry in our souls.
The angry energy of Fucking With My Head marries well the rhythmic choruses of Hang on to Yourself and Black Sheep. Excellent combination of guitar and drums in Nightmares, while Masochist rears on the crest of a purer rock, followed by Doom (Empty).
Tonight is The Night I Die is perhaps the song that least fits the rest of the album. Like a dark fairy tale, its notes glide over a dark atmosphere, also captured in the music video. Like a vampire from the past, the protagonist seems torn between life and death; he wants to be saved, yet he can only succumb to the heaviness of existence.
The album ends with Stay, which travels on a more melodic cadence, and Redeemer, deep and painful, in which personal themes take over again. Lord Of Lies is the very last track, the bonus track where the Palaye Royale seems to have decided to tear apart the instruments.
True and without tricks
Why listen to Palaye Royale? Why listen to The Bastards? I think sometimes someone else’s pain reflects our own pain so deeply that it saves us. I think talent and originality always pay off, just like this album. The Palaye Royale knows how to revolutionize themselves, they know how to be real and without tricks.
In a dystopian journey that speaks of humanity, errors and imperfections, each song is to be listened to calmly to truly understand its essence.
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