Out of the gate, Danish hard rockers Volbeat stood out from the pack. The raucous quartet agilely skirted musical boundaries of metal and rock.
Given the upbringing of frontman/guitarist and Volbeat co-founder Michael Poulsen, it couldn’t be any other way. He grew up imbibing the first wave of thrash and death metal during the 1980s, and was also influenced by his father's love for '50s American rock 'n' roll, rockabilly, and country. Multiple decades, eight albums, one tour as Metallica's support, and a GRAMMY nomination later, Volbeat have become a respected fixture on the heavy rock circuit with a sound like no one else.
Volbeat's ninth and newest album, God of Angels Trust, continues their tradition of colliding old school rock and rockabilly with modern metal sounds. As always, fresh elements like surf guitar riffs ("Enlighten the Disorder (By A Monster's Hand Part 2)") and a gothic piano break ("Lonely Fields") weave into the space. One can also hear little nods to black and thrash metal progenitors Mercyful Fate and Celtic Frost if they listen closely enough. G.O.A.T. maintains the Volbeat style but also hearkens back to their roots in its purposeful songwriting naivete.
God of Angels Trust sometimes tosses conventional song structures out the window. As a way to refresh their inspiration, Poulsen and his bandmates tapped into their younger musical selves when anything was on the table. "[We had] the whole idea of just shooting straight from the hip and throwing away the book of rules, and trying to be a little bit more innocent and laid back about the whole thing," Poulsen recalls. "We did put a lot of work into it – a lot of energy, a lot of inspiration, and a lot of fire."
This more direct, high energy album came about after GRAMMY-nominated guitarist Rob Caggiano left the band in 2023 after performing and recording with Volbeat for a decade. (He has since been replaced by touring guitarist Flemming C. Lund who solos on the album.) That year, Volbeat's management suggested they take a break for the first time in their nearly 25-year career. Poulsen needed a third throat surgery, so he played guitar with death metal side project Asinhell, which released their first album, Impii Hora, in 2023.
Thanks to a musical detour and much needed vocal rest, Poulsen felt recharged and hungry again when he returned to his main group. Also Volbeat’s principal songwriter, Poulsen banged out new tracks quickly and the group recorded God of Angels Trust in 13 days with producer Jacob Hansen.
To support their latest aural offering, Volbeat are about to kick off a two-month U.S. tour to be followed by two more months in Europe. They have been road dogs from the start, toiling hard to build up their following, and they have not lost that hard-working ethos.
Poulsen sat down with GRAMMY via video to talk about God Of Angels Trust, their recent musical approach, and a highly personal new song called "Lonely Fields."
You recorded this album with a less stringent set of rules. How did you approach it?
We sat down and talked about that if you listen to rock music or classic heavy metal or pop music, most of the time we will be waiting for the chorus to kick in. There will always be the climax or the essence of a song. And I said, "What if we did something totally different, a little bit more naive, how we did it back in the days where we had absolutely no idea about structure?"
We didn't know anything about a pre-chorus or a hook or a middle section. That was all about the riffing and putting vocals on top of it. And it worked. Some of those songs we still play, so it made sense. I said, "What if we found something that became the essence of the song, but it wasn't really a chorus?"
Then I came up with "In the Barn of the Goat Giving Birth to Satan's Spawn in a Dying World of Doom." The other guys were like, What is that? I'd be playing the song, and [bassist] Kaspar [Boye Larsen] said, "Where's the chorus?" Exactly, there is no chorus. People are gonna wait for that stupid horror flick line "In the Barn of the Goat Giving Birth to Satan's Spawn in a Dying World of Doom" – that's gonna be the essence and climax of the song.
And they said, "That's really funny, that's a great approach. Let's get to work."
I think we did that with at least four or five songs on the record where you came to a certain point in a song where you normally were expecting a chorus, but then something different happens [like] "By A Monster's Hand." When it goes into the second round [of verses] – [after the lyric] "and it goes on and on and on…" – you expect a chorus to kick in, but it doesn't. There’s a thrashy tempo guitar riff with three solos on top.
A lot of the new song titles and lyrics have occult references, but they feel metaphorical. I get a sense that on this album you're looking at the current state of the world and wondering what the hell is going to happen.
That's very accurate, and I'm happy that you can read between the lines because these days you have to be a little bit aware and a little bit careful [about] being too direct in what you're saying. We do have our political standpoints and beliefs, but then again it’s something you have to be careful about. But in between the lines, people can put two and two together, and it's definitely possible to figure out what I'm talking about — who the real devils are out there in the real world.
It's not us. We're not religious, we're not war makers. We're just spiritual, peaceful human beings who want to take care of our kids and friends and families.
But the world has become a crazy place where you have to remind your children, without scaring them, that there’s a real world outside where a lot of bad people are having too much to say and are a little bit too powerful. Everybody has to be on their toes, do the right thing. We need to stay together, hopefully. I know it's probably very naive, but what else are we supposed to do? If we can't believe the world can change, then we're already lost.
So in that album title, God Of Angels Trust, if you look at the cover, it's pretty much everything that I say in the opening track, "Devils Are Awake." We put our kids to sleep, to bed, for them to feel comfortable, and they are allowed to think that the world is just ice cream and unicorns.
Outside the door there's always something awful looking in called the real world, and there's so much we have to put our trust in – rules and regulation, religious direction on beliefs — just to see them being broken by the creators. You are pretty much being manipulated from the very first moment when you wake up till you go to bed, and you just have to figure out the whole thing.
That's a lot of things for a young brain to capture, and how do we do our best as parents to have them understand what's really going on? That's the challenge. But we also have to believe that the world is a beautiful place, and we cannot let the wrong people destroy it.
What is the most personal song on the new album for you?
"Lonely Fields," absolutely. It’s inspired by the great summers still living at home, being a very young kid, and I would go out on a moped with my dad. He'd be driving the moped and I’d be standing up on it, and he'd be holding me. We went for the corn fields to pick corn for his birds….and on the way to the cornfield we would be passing apple trees and pears and grass. I can still smell it.
When we made it to the cornfields we had these bags that we started putting the corn into. I still miss those days when summer comes. Every time I smell apple trees and pear trees and grass, it reminds me of being on the moped with my dad and going out for corn for the birds.
One night I was dreaming – these birds are constantly picking on my window at my bedroom. I am in this house out in a big cornfield, and these birds keep picking on the window. In my dream, I look at the birds asking, "What are you doing?" Then I see a silhouette out there in the corn field, and that's my dad trying to get me down to the cornfield. I leave the room, go down to the cornfield and meet the spirit of my father, and we start picking corn.
It’s a very emotional lyric because – you know how it is with certain dreams – you wake up and it felt almost like you were there. But in the dream, I go with my dad wherever he went. I woke up thinking, What a beautiful moment. I started writing down everything that I remember from the dream, and it became "Lonely Fields."
Did your late father enjoy your music? Was he happy about the musical influence he had on you?
He was very happy about Volbeat. He was definitely the biggest Volbeat fan in the world. I don't think he understood too much about Dominus, but he let me do what I wanted to do. I had a lot of freedom as a kid, and I thank him for that and my mom too.
But when I found Volbeat they were very, very excited about it. I was not really a happy kid in school, and there were definitely a lot of times where I was not in school, where I took the train to Copenhagen to buy metal records instead. I was still very responsible for everything in school, and I’ve always been working.
My father always said, "If you're doing anything do it 100 percent, and while you're awake be useful."
You’ve worked with three of the original five members of Danish metal icons Mercyful Fate. Michael Denner played guitar on "7 Shots" in 2010; vocalist King Diamond dueted with you on "Room 24" three years later. That song landed Volbeat their one GRAMMY nomination and King his second. Then guitarist Hank Shermann toured with Volbeat in 2012. What was that all like?
I remember being young, living at my parents’ house, having posters of these guys. My father or my mom would walk in and say, "Can you just turn it down? You'll have your chance later. You will play with them on the record, and they will be touring with you. So just relax." I'd go, "What the f— are you talking about?" These guys have been such a huge inspiration for what I did back in the days when I had my first death metal band Dominus, and what I've been doing in Volbeat.
At that time I released my first Dominus CD [in 1994], I met King Diamond in a record store. It was the biggest moment in my life, and to know that so many years after he'll be singing on one of the songs that I wrote, and showing up to our shows in the U.S., was truly something great to remember. [It’s] very emotional and I'm very proud.
Having Shermann touring with us for 88 shows for a whole year was something I can only dream about. I just think those guys had a certain respect for the amount of work that we put into our own career, that it was interesting for them, too, to be part of a next generation of a Danish band that had some good success.