Title: Beyond Hell / Above Heaven
Artist: Volbeat
Genre: Heavy Metal / Rockabilly
Release Date: 10th September 2010 (Germany) / 13th September 2010 (Europe)
Label: Vertigo Berlin (Universal)
Album Review
Unbelievable what the dynamic Danes around front man Michael Poulsen have achieved in the recent years: Numerous awards and collective party right in all areas of musical media. Last year, they toured around the U.S. with NIGHTWISH and METALLICA, this year with AC/DC around Europe. Now the boys bring ‘Beyond Hell / Above Heaven’, their fourth CD in five short years to the stores.
The Copenhagen guys start with ‘The Mirror and the Ripper’ - perfect as opener at live performances. ‘Heaven nor Hell’ is a little bit corny as it’s also typical VOLBEAT. The following ’Who They Are’ is a very good thrasher and only the hymn-like chorus provides breaks. ‘Fallen’ is already known from the live program. Fast rocking, typical VOLBEAT sound, walking directly into the body! Guitar melodies and another excellent vocal performance here remind strongly of the last album. You take good old 50s rock and driving groove metal, shake it all and "A Better Believer” is ready. A very big thing is ‘7 Shots’. It begins as a dust-country-western song, which is then processed with a solo-thrash-groove with KREATOR boss Mille Petrozza, enlisted as a guest singer.
‘A New Day’, isn’t quite able to live up to the quality of the previous compositions, but with the up-tempo rocker ‘16 Dollars’, VOLBEAT is getting back on track easily. Already renowned as introduction song used by Danish boxer Mikkel Kessler ‘A Warrior's Call’ features punctuating and catchy grooves and rhythms. ‘Magic Zone’ promises a lot of darkness but it’s a feel-good song before bringing down hell on earth with the harmlessly titled ‘Evelyn’: No one less than NAPALM DEATH legend Barney Greenway roars over the song here. ‘Being 1’ is a clean rockabilly track without special highlights and the closing ‘Thanks’ is a well-intentioned tribute to the steadily growing crowd of VOLBEAT.
There are fast, slow and mid-tempo songs from different styles of punk, rock 'n' roll, rockabilly, metal, heavy metal, thrash metal and country on the album. In this collection, the ballads were left out entirely but this is the style of VOLBEAT - just music.
Tracklist
01. The Mirror and the Ripper
02. Heaven nor Hell
03. Who They Are
04. Fallen
05. A Better Believer
06. 7 Shots
07. A New Day
08. 16 Dollars
09. A Warrior's Call
10. Magic Zone
11. Evelyn
12. Being 1
13. Thanks
Line-up
Anders Kjølholm - Bass
Jon Larsen - Drums
Michael Poulsen - Vocals, Guitar
Thomas Bredahl - Guitar
Guest Appearances by:
Mille Petrozza - Vocals on ‘7 Shots’
Barney Greenway - Vocals on ‘Evelyn’
Michael Denner
Henrik Hall
Jakob Oelund
Website
http://www.volbeat.dk/ / http://www.myspace.com/volbeat
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 9
Extras: -
Total: 9 / 10
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