Review Summary: A decent mix of mainstream rock and metal, with a side of filler post-grunge.
Life In-between, is a release from the surprisingly unpopular yet mainstream rock/alt metal outfit Royal Bliss. The only thing that most people would know about this band is the single from this album 'save me' which, despite quite a bit of radio play, didn't get the band many more fans, the fact that the band had already released 4 albums before this one and there isn't even a sputnik page for any other one of them really shows that the band is simply getting by releasing what could be great albums without attention.
I found out about this band when on of my friends had the first single on a complication CD and he decided to look up the band, he had told me that the band was surprisingly good and had wanted me to give the band a listen, after looking in stores for the CD I couldn't find the album anywhere as expected, so I decided that I would have to listen to it through other means, I came across most of the tracks on youtube and gave it an honest listen there, to which I found the first 2 tracks surprisingly decent but not anything groundbreaking.
The first track (the before mentioned 'Save Me) starts things out heavy in ways that I didn't expect the single to be. It's lyrics are typical of mainstream rock bands 'And I don't know why, all I need is someone to save me, I believe and I don't know why' and it makes the track suffer from having predictability in that area. But once the yelled bridge came around, I found that the band were capable of being much heavier then originally perceived and decided to keep listening to see if there were any better tracks to come around. The 2nd track "Here They Come' also impressed me, with it's simple but energetic guitar work and vocals and I found it even better then the first track especially lyrically However the next few tracks took it to a much more post-grunge sound and makes the album suffer. Bands that tend to try and mix mainstream rock, metal and grunge *Cough Nickelback cough* Usually always end up differing musically, in this case, Royal Bliss are better doing mainstream rock and metal then doing post-grunge. The softer pace comes too soon and with too many tracks that feel like filler, it wouldn't be such a problem if I couldn't tell the band was actually trying to be serious but failing and the lyrics weren't all about drinking, which really makes repetition in that area including track names (I Was Drunk, Wash It All Away, Whiskey).
It isn't until the fist pumping anthem 'We Done Nothing Wrong' where the band proves exactly what I wanted them to. A surprising guitar solo mixes things up and shows the band is capable, however the repetitiveness of the lyrics 'We Done Nothing Wrong' get annoying, but after first listen I instantly believed it was the best track yet. The band continues to prove what they're capable of with faster and slower paced rock and faster and harder alt metal songs that do a great job trying to keep the listener interested, there are a few more solo's and fist pumping anthems akin to bands like Soil and Trustcompany and the musicianship always stays surprisingly solid. After I finished I was quite surprised and intrigued that this band had slipped under the radar. The album may not be a classic, mainly due to the large amount of post-grunge sounding filler that take up 5 whole tracks. But if you don't mind listening to an album that has an equal amount good songs as it does bad, Life In-Between is a great listen.
