“Shotgun Blues” – the version on the album, not the one on the bonus disc that adds some death metal stylings – chugs like a real groover, and the darkness of “The Devil Rages On” is interspersed with something close to mariachi if its was played by Jon Spencer. And then tell me another band that does that. The next thing that follows “The Sacred Stones” comes in like Slayer playing “Holy Diver”. If you’re new to Volbeat start with track two – that’s not to say that the heavy metal gallop of “Temple of Ekur” isn’t superb, just bear with me – “Wait A Minute My Girl” boasts a piano that would make Jerry Lee Lewis blush (not much did, back in the day by all accounts) and a Saxophone that is lifted straight out the E.St Bands playbook. Weighing in at nearly an hour and twenty minutes all told, if you think the album is dead no one told Michael Poulsen and his mates. Four more on the bonus bits and another one on the Spotify deluxe. “…Mind” is a sprawling thing, though, even by their standards. You can listen to those early recordings and then you can put “Servant Of The Mind” on and it’s the same band, basically. They played the biggest show ever from a domestic band in their homeland of Denmark along the way.īut they’ve never forgotten their roots. A lot has happened since and if the UK – in truth – has been a little slow to catch on, the sold out nature of their last tour a couple of years back showed that was changing.

What he gave me was a compilation he’d made of some Volbeat tunes from their first couple of albums and he was right, I loved them. It sounds like Johnny Cash playing Elvis songs with Metallica.”

Rewind 15 years or so, a mate of mine handed me a CDR and said “here, you’ll like these. As in, “the band have a unique sound” or “they really are quite unique”. There are certain words that get misused to the point of cliché.

Volbeat album themes