Denmark's Volbeat is back with their recent CD, Rock The Rebel/Metal The Devil (Mascot Records). Lame title, YES, but this is their follow up to their last #1 Danish CD. This 4 piece band offers 11 tracks on Rock The Devil/Metal The Devil with a bit of Metal, Hard Rock and sped up, Whisky fueled Johnny Cash-ish Country.
The immediate thing that hits you about Volbeat are the overly monotone, Glenn Danzig style of vocals. Part Danzig, part eerie ghost. Unfortunately, there is no break on the vocals and there are the same on each song. They get very old, very fast! The other thing that is apparent is the Bob Rock Load era, Metallica type songs and style of production. They were obviously inspired by those records and unfortunately they reek of those songs. But there are some cool highlights on Rock The Rebel/Metal The Devil. "River Queen", the best song on the CD and it's a thumper. Other standouts are "You Or Them" and CD closer, "Boa".
Volbeat are obviously looking to reach out to a larger audience other than those in their native Denmark, but to do so they are going to have to address their vocal styling's. They are just too annoying to sustain an 11 track CD. Other than that, these guys do have a fairly consistent record. They do what they do and they do have that already mentioned sound of Metallica's most boring era, but if you enjoy that type of sound, give Volbeat a listen. They do the Load era Metallica justice, but if you are not a fan of that era, you will probably not be into this much.
Not a terrible CD, but this reviewer couldn't really get past the vocals, but I did find a couple of songs that I could listen to again. You be the judge.
Track Listing
- The Human Instrument
- Mr. & Mrs. Ness
- The Garden's Tale
- Devil Or The Blue Cat's Song
- Sad Man's Tongue
- River Queen
- Radio Girl
- A Moment Forever
- Soulweeper #2
- You Or Them
- Boa
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