On the 28th of October, the rock band Palaye Royale released their new album called 'Fever Dream'. We were lucky enough to discover some tracks before the release like 'Fever Dream', 'Broken' or 'No Love In LA', and they all had their own music video, for our biggest pleasure ! Now, let's dive into this 'Fever Dream'.
Who Is Palaye Royale ?
Palaye Royale is a fashion-rock band that was born from the love for music the three brothers Sebastian Danzig, Remington Leith and Emerson Barrett always shared. Born in Canada, they finally made their way to the USA and signed with one of the most popular modern Rock label of our time : Sumerian Records.
From 'Boom Boom Room' to 'The Bastards', to 'Fever Dream', the band went many ways and tried many genres, playing with sounds and technics... What an entertainment for their loyal fans named Soldiers of the Royal Council !
The Palaye Royale brothers get their inspiration from some artists, like My Chemical Romance or Chopin but also from cinema and philosophy. The band chooses deeper themes with time, such as depression, anxiety or society. To resume, they do music, movies and art. An inspired band you can easily get inspired by !
New Album, New Era
We could clearly see a change, an evolution between 'Boom Boom Room', that clearly showed the fashion-rock side of the band, with some calm and vibing songs, and 'The Bastards', that showed a more Hard-Rock, almost Metal side of the band. And they continued to evolve, creating 'Fever Dream' throughout the years. 'Fever Dream' is like the definition of Palaye Royale, for me. The album shows different faces of the band, as much in the instrumentals as in the lyrics. They all improved ; Remington's voice, Sebastian guitar skills and Emerson's beats. Plus, they truly put all their inspiration in it ; Chopin for Emerson, through the piano we can hear on almost every song, old Rock bands like Oasis for Sebastion, through the heavy guitar sound, and My Chemical Romance and other Emo-Alt band through the Emo-pop vibe for Remington we feel through the singing line. All of this has been brilliantly put together by Chris Greatti, a great Alt music producer, guitar player and author-composer-performer
Album Analysis
The album has this heavy atmosphere that Palaye Royale love to put in their songs. Some songs can break your heart, some will make you want to conqueer the world, and for most of them, they will have sad lyrics but an instrumental that makes you want to jump !
Throughout the songs, we go through several dark themes ; discomfort, anxiety, lack of self-love and self-estime, not feeling loved, not finding ourself and being heart-broken. That's what we can feel with 'Punching Bag', 'Broken', 'Paranoid' or 'Toxic In You'. For me, 'Toxic In You' got something more. We are used to the metaphorical lyrics of Palaye Royale, always taking us to an other world, but here, there is this thing of not knowing if they're really talking about a drug, or about a person. There is this feeling of going back to a toxic habit, something that's not good for us, that makes us feel guilty, but we're going back to it everytime because it's got something we feel like in need of, even if it's an illusion. For me, there is this weird feeling in it, of not knowing if this is really what it's all about, or if it's just a methaphore. And I find it beautiful and really well-written.
But Palaye Royale are good at something else. I had this strange feeling while listening to the album when my phone played 'King Of The Damned'. A feeling that was there in the entire album but that came out during that song, a feeling that I would describe in three words : accept and fight. There is also this acceptance of those dark feelings in the song 'Wasted Sorrow' : 'Pills aren't hard to swallow'. But also this will to fight for a life that's worth living. Lot of things on earth suck and we can choose to see this part only, or to accept it and try to live the best life possible.
I could write for hours about this album, so I guess I'm gonna slow down.
This is a true work-of-art. It's an album that makes us feel better by the vibes and some inspiring lyrics, but also through the dark ones, as we can relate and know we're not alone. Palaye Royale is a band who's really close to its fans, and constantly care about them (as we could see with 'Lonely', and everything that came around this amazing song). And even if they all tend to write lyrics, Remington seems the one who writes the most. And it feels like he put all his fears and dark emotions in songs to feel better, and by doing this, he's helping people all around the world to feel better. It looks like an international-scale healing process to me.
I will end this article by saying congratulations to Palaye Royale, Chris Greatti, and everyone involved in the making of this album that tells a deep story. You can stream it here, and if you prefer live versions, they'll be on tour in Europe from January 20th 2023 to March 13th 2023 ! Grab your tickets here !
Photos : bisiotphotography.com