Pound For Pound

If a brief sojourn on a major label and years of toiling at their craft have softened Royal Trux, it has only made POUND FOR POUND infinitely more digestible to mainstream sensibilities than the Trux' debut 12 years ago. Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema's grit-encrusted, Southern-fried rock & roll is not meant for pop radio-accustomed ears.
Royal Trux are for lovers of twisted music, people who look for what lurks behind the green door, and, on POUND FOR POUND, Royal Trux's rough-hewn rock reaches a howling apex. Jennifer Herrema's guttural screams and Neil Hagerty's smoother punk combine in dirty perfection in this collection of swirling metallic blues. Of particular note are the howling "Fire Hill", the grainy "Deep Country Sorcerer", and the Isaac Hayes-crossed-with-Afghan Whigs "Small Thief", the closest thing to a pop song here. Royal Trux have in the past professed a desire to emulate the Rolling Stones, and here they do it more through their music than through their former spirit of dark rebellion.|