Band of Skulls at Wonder Ballroom in Portland, OR on Oct 2, 2019

It takes only seconds of Band of Skulls’ fifth album, Love Is All You Love, to realise that they are no longer the band you thought they were. Carnivorous begins with a fanfare of synths, which lead into a pounding, throbbing dancefloor bassline, an Arabesque lead guitar figure, and electronic percussion patterns -- yet underneath it all there’s still a blisteringly powerful rock’n’roll band. “Carnivorous opened the window for the thought: What can we do now? What are we capable of?” says bassist and singer Emma Richardson. “It was the first step towards taking a risk, and it was an exciting feeling early on that led to the album going down this path.” This path is one in which the best bits of the Band of Skulls who have established themselves as one of Britain’s most exciting and successful rock’n’roll bands are meshed with something new. The result is an album that doesn’t skimp on the force of overdriven guitars but combines the sounds of a live band with electronic programming and the pop genius of producer Richard X (M.I.A., Goldfrapp, Sugababes, Pet Shop Boys) to create a record that sounds like a band reborn. That Band of Skulls was going to have to change was inevitable once drummer Matt Hayward told Richardson and singer/guitarist Russell Marsden he was leaving the group at the end of 2016, once they had finished touring their fourth album, By Default. “We became a songwriting duo,” Marsden says, “which has a completely different feel to being a songwriting band. We didn’t know what that felt like until it happened and it changed the dynamic of the creative process.”