Volbeat Servant Of The Mind EMI
If you are acquainted with the previous seven studio albums from this band, then you’ll know the basic score: they mix metal, punk, psychobilly and melody with a heady yet disciplined abandon. However, after perhaps treading water on occasion during the previous two or three albums, with this latest one they’ve been a little more adventurous.
You can hear this on the slinky yet sinister , as vocalist Michael Poulsen tells of how Satan came to Earth and took human form to wreak havoc. Hardly a ground-breaking subject, but Volbeat handle it all with their customary individuality. , which is a true story of Poulsen’s encounter with ghosts, allows guitarist Rob Caggiano to dig deep into his love for Metallica and deliver some neatly viscous riffs. And the closing epic tackles the detail of Sweden’s first witch burnings in 1471. This is done without having to take the doomy musical approach that many may have expected, but that’s not in Volbeat’s mentality. They prefer to give off an uneasy atmosphere through the toning down of their usual approach, and once more is bright, breezy and summery, inspired to a large extent by Jerry Lee Lewis, while opener takes its mantra from the sort of ancient themes the band have successfully explored several times previously.
