airwaves, by which point Poulson’s formative demonic bellow had smoothed into a radiant, radio-ready voice perfectly suited to open-sunroof anthems like “Fallen”. As Volbeat became a chart-topping force in Denmark, an invite from Metallica to open their 2009 North America tour helped push the group’s fourth album, Beyond Hell/Above Heaven, onto U.S. With Volbeat, however, he pursued a bold new sound that fused his love of double-kick-drummed thrash with the outlaw spirit of early rock ‘n’ roll-and, let’s face it, few artists with his black-hooded pedigree would dare introduce their new band with a riff-ravaged cover of the Dusty Springfield standard “I Only Wanna Be With You”. Strength was never going to be a problem for this band: Singer/guitarist Michael Poulson cut his fangs in the death-metal outfit Dominus.

Copenhagen hard-rock quartet Volbeat debuted in 2005 with the rather cockily titled album The Strength / The Sound / The Songs, but their track record has proven they can back up that claim on all three counts.

New volbeat album rebel