BLACK ORCHID EMPIRE

Yugen

LONG BRANCH/SPV London-based rockers add some brawn to their ambition

Heavy music has broken down genre boundaries and spiralled into different directions, but never underestimate the power of good, solid rock. On their second album, London trio

Black Orchid Empire have proved themselves proficient at creating the kind of anthemic, chest-beating songs that have propelled peers Biffy Clyro, Twin Atlantic and Lower Than Atlantis to ever-expanding stages. Immediately accessible, melodic opener My Favourite Stranger wastes no time before invading your cranium and Blacklight Shadow bursts into a chorus that resembles Foo Fighters’

My Hero. Yugen is easily heavier than Black Orchid Empire’s debut, Archetype, with the band unafraid to put their foot down when it’s warranted. The dense and brawny Wires and Toru’s Maze are powered by the same turbocharged intent as Royal Blood’s muscular riffery, providing

Black Orchid Empire with some guts and balls to accompany that stadium-bound beating heart. FOR FANS OF: ROYAL BLOOD, TWIN ATLANTIC, LOWER THAN ATLANTIS