Royal Blood are number one in the UK albums chart this week, beating both Lorde and Nickelback to the top spot.

The Brighton duo released their second album ‘How Did We Get So Dark’ last week (June 16), the same day that New Zealand pop sensation Lorde dropped her own second LP ‘Melodrama’ and Nickelback released their ninth studio record ‘Feed The Machine’.

Royal Blood reached number one ahead of Ed Sheeran’s ‘÷’ at second spot, Nickelback at number three, Rag’N’Bone Man’s ‘Human’ at four and Lorde at number five.


It is Royal Blood’s second consecutive UK number one album after their self-titled debut reached the top spot in 2014.

Finishing almost 22,000 combined sales ahead of Sheeran, the band told the Official Charts Company of the news: “Wow. Just wow … can we just say, thank you so much”.

Speaking to NME at Glastonbury Festival, the band said that they never aimed to make a number one album but that it’s “great” that people have received the record so positively.

Royal Blood and Nickelback exchanged barbed comments last year, with the Brighton band seeming to say that Nickelback were a combination of both Trump and Clinton. Nickelback later replied, saying that Royal Blood were getting as old as their jokes, and urging them to ‘not drink and tweet’.

Watch Royal Blood speak to NME at Glastonbury below:


Other new entries include Fleet Foxes‘ ‘Crack-Up’ at number nine, Ride’s ‘Weather Diaries’ at number 11, Goldie‘s ‘The Journey Man’ at 43 and Beth Ditto‘s solo debut ‘Fake Sugar’ at 47.

Royal Blood recently explained David Bowie’s influence on their new album. Frontman Mike Kerr said: “We did the Bowie thing at one point where you get 10 microphones, all about three foot apart going on and on and on,” he said. “And then they all have a gate on them, so the louder you sing, the further the mic picks up, that was amazing.”

Lorde, meanwhile, appears on the cover of this week’s NME. Read her full interview here.

Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger made headlines this week by slamming Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor, arguing that his band are a “gimmick” and describing his side-project Stone Sour as “Nickelback Lite”.

Kroeger said of Stone Sour: “They’re trying to be Nickelback… They’re okay, but they’re not as good as Nickelback.”