Atlanta foursome Royal Thunder will be releasing Crooked Doors, the much-anticipated – and outstanding – follow-up to 2012’s standout CVI on April 7 via Relapse, but in the meantime the band has steadily been premiering new songs across the metal/hard rock internet, and today it’s our turn. Not only that, but we’ve been given one of the best tracks on the album, the subdued and surprisingly tender ballad “Forgive Me, Karma”. Overall Crooked Doors sees the band exploring a less aggressive, more melodic side of their music, which fits them perfectly, with Mlny Parsonz discovering more richness and emotion in her singing voice, and guitarist Josh Weaver focusing less on riffs and more on texture. This track in particular is a splendid example of that new musical direction. In a recent conversation Parsonz was kind enough to offer yours truly her thoughts on the song, and she didn’t hold back:

“It’s a song that I wrote about leaving someone behind. I’ve made a lot of choices and done a lot of things, and I’ve caused a lot of pain. I can only hope that me learning from my mistakes counts for something, as far as reaping what you sow. It’s like, forgive me karma, can you just take the fact that I realize what I’ve done and I’ve come to terms with it, and it wasn’t intentional that I caused pain, but I did, and I couldn’t stand to have one foot in and one foot out. I couldn’t stand anymore to be straddling two different worlds, it was ripping my soul apart. I had to make a choice of one direction. It’s about stopping the bouncing back and forth between two worlds that I was living in, and choosing one.”

Give “Forgive Me, Karma” a listen below, and be sure to pre-order Crooked Doors here.

Photo by Kevin Griggs