Since 2013, the English duo of Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher have blended blown-out bass and drums to lay out an electro-shocked vision of blues-rock. After wrapping up their tour behind 2023’s Back to the Water Below, Kerr and Thatcher took a breather, and that time off led to them being fully reenergized for the recording of their fifth album. It worked: The self-produced Dead Company is taut and robust, opening with the title track’s blistering riff and refusing to let up. The stomp of “Nowhere All Along,” the beats of “Ten Over Ten,” and the amped-up boogieing of “Tapping Out” all show how Royal Blood’s rhythm-section setup roots them in heavy grooving, while Kerr’s continued pushing of the bass guitar’s limits places the duo firmly in rock’s 21st-century vanguard.