10 Killer Rock Music Bands With No Guitarist

Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher may recently have become known in the world of mainstream music for a nuclear tantrum at Radio One's Big Weekend last year, but that doesn't mean the West Sussex blues rock duo don't craft a tasty track. As Royal Blood, they have been tearing up the airwaves for over a decade now, and have managed to create a crunchy, multi-pitch sound with drums, a mic, a bass, a rack of pedals and not much else.

But things almost didn’t work out this way. The band began life in 2011 as a three-piece, with Kerr on vox and bass, Joe Dennis on guitar and original drummer Matt Swan on skins. When Dennis left in 2012, the remaining duo had to shift up their process to compensate for his absence, and wound up creating what is now their distinctive sound. Thatcher replaced Swan on drums a year later, and Royal Blood as we know it was born, with an expansive soundscape built around the bass as a lead instrument.

Now touring their acclaimed fourth studio album, Back to the Water Below, the boys' innovation just keeps coming!