Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Volbeat Rock the Rebel/Metal the Devil Company: Mascot Records Release: 2007 Genre: Hard rock, metal rockabilly Reviewer: Strutter

Johnny Cash and Layne Staley must be proud

Get down on your hands and knees and pray to the Gods of Metal, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and hair pomade. Welcome to the world of Volbeat. Their latest release "Rock the Rebel/Metal the Devil" is one of those cds that has you feeling baptized by a new sound. As the best thing to come out of Denmark since Hamlet, Volbeat formed in 2001 yet their echo is far more mature on this release than their "age" would have you thinking.

Topping the Danish album charts as the first metal album/best-selling album, Volbeat's "Rock the Rebel/Metal the Devil "somehow manages to combine Rockabilly and Metal in such a way that you wonder why it hasn't been done all along. While the band is as tight as they come, lead singer, Michael Poulsen, has an atypical and astonishing signature tonal quality to his vocals that is a faultless and impeccable instrument for well crafted lyrics and the banjo meets Beelzebub sound that flows through the entire cd.

Jon Larsen – Drums, Anders Kjølholm – Bass and Thomas Bredahl on Guitar provide an Anthrax/Metallica barrage of resonance that grabs you from the gut and never sets you free for 11 tracks.

And that's ok. You won't want to be released in any case.

Finally, "Rock the Rebel/Metal the Devil" is a tour de force that very well may find its place in the Metal Hall of Fame.

Johnny Cash and Layne Staley must be proud.

Volbeat Rock the Rebel/Metal the Devil Company: Mascot Records Release: 2007 Genre: Hard rock, metal rockabilly Reviewer: Frank Hill

Combines older 50's R&R and metal very successfully

I don't need to show my age by stating that I love older 50's Rock and Roll and the early years of Elvis Presley. It's usually quite innocent and thematically different than the METAL I've listened to since the late 70s, but Denmark's favorite throwback sons, Volbeat, have combined them both very successfully. Other than a few of the lead guitar melody lines, vocalist Michael Poulsen, who can put out a really unique swing rhythm to his phrases, is the true connector to the past with his Elvis/Misfits delivery sneered over top of a prominent, rock guitar sound. 2005's The Strength/The Sound/The Songs stayed on that format rather faithfully, but with 2007's Rock The Rebel/Metal The Devil, Volbeat has pushed their geography a little farther South with some swamp-slide touches--"The Human Instrument" and the hard-driving, immensely catchy "Sad Man's Tongue". Those who preferred the rockabilly and the faster numbers from the prior cd like "Danny & Lucy (11 PM)" will find even more to like with "Radio Girl", "Devil Or The Blue Cat's Song", "A Moment Forever", and the nicely-arranged, pinnacle number "The Garden's Tale". “Soulweeper 2” brings back some of that old hair grease. The hardest part of melding together disparate music styles may be less in the musicality and more the acceptance of audiences. Volbeat is certainly one of the more odd bands on the metal scene, but that's what the conformists say about all the rebels, don't they. They've just named their forthcoming cd Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood and I really like the sound of that.