The Rockit King: Truth Will Set You Free

Game-changing third studio album from overlooked Michigan rock’n’rollers.

You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

It’s a happy feeling when an unofficial, anonymous-looking envelope turns out to contain one of your favourite new albums of the month. Things go from a suspicious “Hmm, what’s this?” to bounding across the office declaring, “I love this!”

Seemingly finding their way to Classic Rock Towers without a peep of publicity, The Rockit King have spent the last 14 years perfecting their chops in their native Michigan – embarking on stateside support slots with David Lee Roth and Sebastian Bach in the process.

Like so many gigging bands, they’re good but haven’t moved beyond a largely localised, DIY ethic and fanbase. So where do a bunch of seasoned dreamers go from here?

Obviously you assume (or at least hope) that every record, from every band, is intended to be the best thing they’ve ever done. But somehow Truth Will Set You Free is especially earnest in its sense of a group who’ve decided: “Right, no bullshitting, this is going to be the best rock’n’roll record we can make.”

And that, basically, is exactly what they’ve done. Corners aren’t cut, winning hooks aren’t milked endlessly, different moods are all pursued with gusto… It’s a complete, tasty meal of an album – rooted in blues, steeped in classic rock and prettied up with personality.

Opener All’s You Got sets the agenda, gradually introducing layer upon increasingly gratifying layer of lean, mean rock’n’roll machinery. Dirty verse riffs and twin-lead touches seem to form the song’s zenith, until the soulfully harmonised chorus slides in – and is even better. One of those splendidly assured, characterful starters that suggests you’re in safe hands from here on in. Assuming you can stop yourself immediately pressing ‘replay’. You really shouldn’t, though, when the sassy likes of Wha Chu Say are lurking round the corner, tantalisingly layering on the groove.

At the softer end of their spectrum, the tender balladry and stirring pop harmonies of Who R U are irresistibly lovelorn yet packed with colour – as is the pensive, syncopated Ours To Know, complete with splashes of swashbuckling, wah-filled guitar strutting. After one listen, you’ll like it. Give it two or three, however, and you’ll really be onto something.

If everyone got their just deserts, Truth Will Set You Free would make The Rockit King fabulously successful. At the very least, it should earn them a few more fans – they more than deserve them. If you take a punt on one new record this month, why not make it this one?/o:p

Polly Glass
Deputy Editor, Classic Rock

Polly is deputy editor at Classic Rock magazine, where she writes and commissions regular pieces and longer reads (including new band coverage), and has interviewed rock's biggest and newest names. She also contributes to Louder, Prog and Metal Hammer and talks about songs on the 20 Minute Club podcast. Elsewhere she's had work published in The Musician, delicious. magazine and others, and written biographies for various album campaigns. In a previous life as a women's magazine junior she interviewed Tracey Emin and Lily James – and wangled Rival Sons into the arts pages. In her spare time she writes fiction and cooks.

Latest in
Vera Farmiga in 2021
The Conjuring star Vera Farmiga announces debut album with her heavy metal band The Yagas
'Emo' Ed Sheeran busking
Watch Ed Sheeran cover Chappell Roan's Pink Pony Club on the New York subway while disguised as an emo busker
A close-up shot of the Marshall Major IV on-ear headphones on a turquoise, blue and black background.
I’ve never seen the Marshall Major IV headphones this cheap before - get them for half price in Amazon’s big spring sale
Evanescence in 2025
Evanescence release new song Afterlife from Devil May Cry TV series soundtrack, have their next album in the works
Tony Banks
“You only have to hear the opening sweep to reach for your lighter and wave it in the air”: Tony Banks' greatest Genesis moments
The Horrors
Ghouls Aloud: The Horrors come back from the dead with "a dazzling nocturnal spectacle of sombre reflections and oozing catharsis"
Latest in Review
The Horrors
Ghouls Aloud: The Horrors come back from the dead with "a dazzling nocturnal spectacle of sombre reflections and oozing catharsis"
/news/the-darkness-i-hate-myself
"When the storm clouds clear, the band’s innate pop sensibilities shine as brightly as ever": In a world of bread-and-butter rock bands, The Darkness remain the toast of the town
Sex Pistols at the RAH
"Open the dance floor, you’ll never get to do it again." Forget John Lydon's bitter and boring "karaoke" jibes, with Frank Carter up front, the Sex Pistols sound like the world's greatest punk band once more
Arch Enemy posing in an alleyway
Arch Enemy promised they'd throw out the rule book for Blood Dynasty. They didn't go quite that far, but this is the boldest album of the Alissa White-Gluz era - and it kicks ass
The Darkness press shot
"Not just one of the best British rock albums of all time, but one of the best debut albums ever made": That time The Darkness added a riot of colour to a grey musical landscape
Roger Waters - The Dark Side of the Moon Redux Deluxe Box Set
“The live recording sees the piece come to life… amid the sepulchral gloom there are moments of real beauty”: Roger Waters' Super Deluxe Box Set of his Dark Side Of The Moon Redux