Plant and Royal Blood share the week's classic tracks
The Blackest Crow appears on a digital EP first pressed for Record Store Day, while Dead Company names Royal Blood's next album.
Robert Plant and Royal Blood both appear among the selections in Classic Rock Tracks of the Week for 12 October 2026, pairing a traditional Appalachian folk reading against the title track of a new heavy rock album.
Plant's contribution is The Blackest Crow, taken from the digital EP Saving Grace: All That Glitters.... The EP originally appeared as a Record Store Day vinyl release and has since been issued digitally. The Blackest Crow is a traditional Appalachian folk tune. That choice pulls Plant towards the plain grain of older material rather than the hard rock with which his name is most often linked.
Royal Blood answer with Dead Company. It is the title track from their next album and arrives as a galloping buzzsaw hook with pounding drums, mixing raw force with the swagger of a band more than a decade into their career.
Royal Blood's fifth album cycle
Royal Blood formed in Worthing in 2011 as a duo of Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher. Kerr's bass playing, driven through effects pedals and amplifiers so that it occupies the space of both guitar and bass, has been the foundation of their sound from the first records. The pair signed with Warner Chappell Music in 2013. Their self-titled debut album arrived in 2014, followed by How Did We Get So Dark? in 2017, Typhoons in 2021 and Back to the Water Below in 2023.
Dead Company therefore opens what will be their fifth studio album in that run. Across those four earlier records the duo have stayed close to a compact, riff-led approach: two players, a large stage sound, and little decorative padding. A title track built on a buzzsaw hook and a hard drum pattern sits in the same vein. More than ten years after the debut, the single suggests the architecture has not been abandoned.
The gap since Back to the Water Below makes the new track the first clear public marker of the next cycle. No full tracklist or release date for the album has been announced beyond the appearance of Dead Company itself. What is clear is the intent: the song is offered as a statement of continuing force rather than a change of direction.
Plant's Record Store Day EP goes digital
For Plant, The Blackest Crow belongs to a smaller format. Saving Grace: All That Glitters... collects the track on a digital EP following the Record Store Day vinyl pressing. Issuing the EP digitally widens access to a release that began as a Record Store Day exclusive. The traditional Appalachian source places the recording in a conversation with folk repertoire that has long run alongside Plant's electric work, including the catalogue built with Led Zeppelin.
Classic Rock Tracks of the Week sets the two cuts beside other new material from the broader rock field. One is a folk traditional given a fresh studio reading; the other is a contemporary single designed to announce an album. Both are available now. For Royal Blood the next step is the full album that Dead Company names. For Plant the digital EP extends the reach of a Record Store Day title into everyday listening formats.
Neither release tries to rewrite the artists who made them. Plant returns to a traditional tune; Royal Blood double down on riffs and drums. The week's list simply puts both on the same page, where anyone following either catalogue can find them without fuss.
Plant's contribution is The Blackest Crow, taken from the digital EP Saving Grace: All That Glitters.... The EP originally appeared as a Record Store Day vinyl release and has since been issued digitally. The Blackest Crow is a traditional Appalachian folk tune. That choice pulls Plant towards the plain grain of older material rather than the hard rock with which his name is most often linked.
Royal Blood answer with Dead Company. It is the title track from their next album and arrives as a galloping buzzsaw hook with pounding drums, mixing raw force with the swagger of a band more than a decade into their career.
Royal Blood's fifth album cycle
Royal Blood formed in Worthing in 2011 as a duo of Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher. Kerr's bass playing, driven through effects pedals and amplifiers so that it occupies the space of both guitar and bass, has been the foundation of their sound from the first records. The pair signed with Warner Chappell Music in 2013. Their self-titled debut album arrived in 2014, followed by How Did We Get So Dark? in 2017, Typhoons in 2021 and Back to the Water Below in 2023.
Dead Company therefore opens what will be their fifth studio album in that run. Across those four earlier records the duo have stayed close to a compact, riff-led approach: two players, a large stage sound, and little decorative padding. A title track built on a buzzsaw hook and a hard drum pattern sits in the same vein. More than ten years after the debut, the single suggests the architecture has not been abandoned.
The gap since Back to the Water Below makes the new track the first clear public marker of the next cycle. No full tracklist or release date for the album has been announced beyond the appearance of Dead Company itself. What is clear is the intent: the song is offered as a statement of continuing force rather than a change of direction.
Plant's Record Store Day EP goes digital
For Plant, The Blackest Crow belongs to a smaller format. Saving Grace: All That Glitters... collects the track on a digital EP following the Record Store Day vinyl pressing. Issuing the EP digitally widens access to a release that began as a Record Store Day exclusive. The traditional Appalachian source places the recording in a conversation with folk repertoire that has long run alongside Plant's electric work, including the catalogue built with Led Zeppelin.
Classic Rock Tracks of the Week sets the two cuts beside other new material from the broader rock field. One is a folk traditional given a fresh studio reading; the other is a contemporary single designed to announce an album. Both are available now. For Royal Blood the next step is the full album that Dead Company names. For Plant the digital EP extends the reach of a Record Store Day title into everyday listening formats.
Neither release tries to rewrite the artists who made them. Plant returns to a traditional tune; Royal Blood double down on riffs and drums. The week's list simply puts both on the same page, where anyone following either catalogue can find them without fuss.
Watch the videoThe Blackest Crow