Pop Music Reviews : Royal Court Rocks Out, Rattles Noggins

Between its first and second albums, the Royal Court of China adopted a less regal, more raucous sound--though it’s not surprising that the band’s style would change with a turnover of half its personnel. Did this shift mean that the group’s show Wednesday at the Roxy was a case of musical split personality between the tuneful country-ish and folk touches from the first LP and the crunching rock from the second?

A loud and aggressive no! These guys from Nashville are head-bangers now, pure and simple. They were introduced by a deejay from a heavy-metal radio station, and they stormed through an 11-song set of mostly current material with all the noggin-rattling fervor a Pure Rock fan could hope for.

Indeed, in embracing the metal life, the quartet is likely to win such fans (and maybe a few others) wherever it plays. From the get-go of the opening number, “Mr. Indecision,” the band unleashed a wildly spirited attack, musically and visually. Singer-guitarist Joe Blanton has immensely powerful pipes, but avoids that Siamese-cat screeching endemic to metal vocalists.

And just when you might have been thinking that this conversion to rollicking rock is pretty convincing but could use a bit more humor, they encored with a tune called “This Is the Shortest Song in the World,” which consisted of those eight words. Sung once.