Arena conquering Danes Volbeat put preconception and pressure to one side on instinctive sounding, rapidly written ninth album.
Keep a notebook handy. You might wanna keep a tally of the little salutes Volbeat offer to Metallica and Slayer on what is, by the Danish band’s usual standards, a surprisingly varied return. This isn’t stealing, mind – far from it, mainman Michael Poulsen is just tipping the hat.
To their credit, Volbeat may have rarely swerved from their thrash-meets-rockabilly roots, but they sure as hell have never sounded like anyone but Volbeat. Shortly after lockdown ended they released probably their best album, 2021’s Servant Of The Mind, a flame-throwing, gas-guzzling thing that wholly upped the ante. This time, rather than trying to fight fire with similar fire, Michael’s trod a different path, taking much less time to write, and spending far fewer hours nailing things in the studio.
That’s given us the ludicrously titled but intriguingly dark In The Barn Of The Goat Giving Birth To Satan's Spawn In A Dying World Of Doom, the type of broody shapeshifter that an earlier Volbeat would have smiled at before quietly abandoning. It’s also delivered album highlight Better Be Fueled Than Tamed, which kicks off mid-stream and continues to captivate with flashy melodies and creative verve. Acid Rain’s got a kicker of a chorus, too, while Time To Heal, though not one of the better songs, finds the frontman in considered or even philosophical mindset for perhaps the first time.
Such muscle memory creation doesn’t succeed every time – there’s a handful of tracks among these 10 that would have benefited from the thought and polish they’d have received previously. Michael’s also had to do this without longtime guitarist Rob Caggiano, who surprisingly parted ways with the band in 2023. That said, touring six-stringer Flemming C Lund steps in with equal depth and dexterity, especially on wall-rattlers like Devils Are Awake and Demonic Depression. We’re left with something that isn’t Volbeat’s best album, but is a candidate for their most interesting.
Verdict: 3/5
For fans of: Metallica, Ghost, Creeper
God Of Angels Trust is out June 6 via Vertigo/Universal
