The Danish hard rockers VOLBEAT have released their sixth album “Seal the Deal & Let’s Boogie” while headlining the 3rd day of this year’s Rock Am Ring festival. The band is currently at their peak of their career and their previous album “Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies” was highly successful too, managing to top the charts in seven countries and entering the Billboard 200 charts in the United States at number nine!
“Since the recipe works, there is no need to change it”; I guess the band’s main composer/vocalist/guitarist Michael Poulsen thought and that’s why this new album has the rock song-writing formula that has made them popular all over it, along with his characteristic baritone (Elvis-goes-metal) vocals.
The first song “The Devil’s Bleeding Crown” is also the first single and a video clip has been made for it, which was a wise choice since it is the best song in the album. It features a modern heavy rock riff in a tempo that gets your head banging without even realizing it while the bridge of the same song, right after the solo by the lead guitar player (ex-Anthrax) Rob Caggiano, had me imagining an arena crowd clapping in its rhythm.
The other twelve tracks of the standard edition of the cd keep on the uplifting feel of VOLBEAT’s music with the highlights being “Black Rose”, for featuring the vocals of rocker Danko Jones and “Seal the Deal” for having a faster tempo.
There are also two covers in this album. The one is “Rebound” done originally by the pop-punk group TEENAGE BOTTLEROCKET and the other is the southern rock “Battleship Chains,” a GEORGIA SATELLITES song.
Every song in the album has a sing-along chorus and melodic guitars playing, with many of them being acoustic. It is not until the bonus track “Slaytan” (of the deluxe version) that –hardly- one minute of heavy metal can be heard.
The well-polished production of the album is credited by Poulsen himself, Caggiano and band’s long time collaborator, Jacob Hansen.
Overall, if you are a fan of the band you will find this release fairly enjoyable. If you are an exclusively heavy metal fan then probably you ‘ll find this album too commercial for your taste. I’m sure though, that everyone will have a good time if the DJ plays it while having a beer at a bar and it also can become a nice Summer vacation soundtrack.
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