If you were betting on Danish failing, you better think again because Volbeat expand their streak of great albums with their sixth.
It’s even better than the previous ones because it sounds even more solid, always true to the band’s style, a bit more country and more rockabilly is some spots, but always metal, melodic, catchy including a few new elements that we’ve never heard from them before.
There are a couple of guest slots with Canadian rocker Danko Jones sharing lead vocals on “Black Rose” and Johan Olsen (who had appeared as a guest once before on “The Garden’s Tale” from the album “Rock The Rebel/Metal The Devil” in 2007) on “For Evgit”, which are actually two of the best songs in the album. Of course, the band’s regular obsession with dark and mysterious historical figures is once again present with “Marie Laveau”, a notorious voodoo queen from New Orleans, as well as “Mary Jane Kelly”, Jack The Ripper’s final victim.
The cover of “Battleship Chains” originally by the Woods, that stays close to the Georgia Satelites’ version, which actually made this song a hit in 1986, as well as their version of “Rebound” from punks Teenage Bottlerocker, that the band manages to make fit for their style, are something new introduced here.
Also very good and quite characteristic of the Danes’ are the songs “Goodbye Forever”, -maybe one of their best ever- with an acoustic guitar in the beginning, marching drums and a chilling riff, “You Will Know”, as well as the heaviest of the lot, “Loa’s Crossroads”. In general, I don’t think that you will find even a second lacking in a well-crafted and balanced album, sharp and hard, just like the guy’s on the artwork punch! My only complaint would be that the bonus material aren’t original songs, but different mixes of “For Evgit” (re-named as “The Bliss”) and “Black Rose”, plus a live version of “The Devil’s Bleeding Crown”, still this is not a reason to spoil the absolutely great impression this album creates even from the first spin.