Royal Thunder returns with ‘Crooked Doors’

Hard rock band finished sophomore album at its own pace.

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  • Kevin Griggs
  • ROYAL THUNDER: Josh Weaver (from left), Will Fiore, Evan Diprima, and Mlny Parsonz.

Crooked Doors (Deluxe Version) by Royal Thunder

After the 2012 release of Royal Thunder’s debut full-length, CVI, the fast-rising Atlanta hard rock outfit faced a daunting task: Following up on an album that had not only received widespread critical praise, but also shined a light on a new force in American heavy music. Rather than over-prepare for its anticipated sophomore effort, Royal Thunder did what Royal Thunder tends to do. “We take our sweet time,” says Mlny Parsonz, the group’s bassist and vocalist. “All the time.”

Indeed, patience seems to be a core value for Parsonz and her bandmates, guitarist Josh Weaver, drummer Evan Diprima, and new guitarist Will Fiore (Zoroaster), who joined this year. Weaver started Royal Thunder in 2004 and a self-released, self-titled EP came out in 2009, but another three years passed before CVI pushed the band onto the national radar.

In January of 2014, Royal Thunder gathered with producer Joey Jones at Marietta’s Aria Recording Studio without much of a plan or a timeline in mind, Weaver says. “We had a lot of ideas and two to four songs that were almost there, but not completely honed in, so we went in there and I put together some basic parts and we would just work ‘em out,” he says. “There were some times when we were in the studio and it was like, ‘Man, how’s this album going to turn out? How’s it going to look in the end?’”

The band worked on the album for several months, giving Weaver, an acknowledged gearhead, lots of time to experiment with new toys. And there was a delay in the middle of the process after Parsonz was injured in a wreck and couldn’t breathe deeply without pain for some time.


Eventually, the band finished the job, and on April 7, Relapse Records released the results: Crooked Doors, Royal Thunder’s dynamic second full-length, finds the band building on its blend of Southern rock, psychedelic metal, and bluesy swagger.

Crooked Doors wastes no time establishing Royal Thunder’s strengths. “Time Machine” opens the album with a propulsive intro. Parsonz’ earth-moving voice and the song’s electric guitars are capable of both reverberant beauty and sludgy, serrated riffs. “Forget You” opens with a sinister groove and builds to a sky-scraping chorus filled with spacey, six-string swirl.

Later, tunes such as “Forgive Me, Karma” and “Glow” reflect Royal Thunder’s songwriting skills, the former in its unconventional structure and the latter in its irrepressible pop sensibility. Throughout the album’s 11 songs, Parsonz is a dominant force.

Before Royal Thunder, Parsonz and Weaver were involved in what Parsonz calls a “Christian cult.” She declines to provide more detail, but says the experience continues to course through her songs to this day. “(On CVI), I was really singing about pulling away and finding my own spirituality, and I was pretty angry at the time,” Parsonz says. “I think there was a lot of … melancholy and darkness in that album. As you get older, you just sort of realize that your time is precious and it becomes more about relationships.”

Parsonz describes her cult experience as “somebody else’s sculpted reality” and says the songs on Crooked Doors deliver on her longstanding desire to “just be real and honest,” both with herself and listeners. Now, she’s more comfortable putting her life into her lyrics than she used to be. “That was my mentality: Just fuckin’ say it. Just do it. Just let it out,” she says. “Who cares? I think the music reflects that. It says, ‘Yeah, we’re not what they thought we were.’ We have a lot going on and a lot of things we want to express and there’s more of it and hopefully the next album will be even better.”

But that’s looking far into the future. Which is not Weaver’s way. “We don’t really think it out,” he says. “We just sort of do it. I just like to live in the day.”

One day at a time. That’s Royal Thunder’s pace.