Words by Maddy Howell
Across eight albums and over two decades, Volbeat have forged an unmistakable sonic identity.
A genre-blending powerhouse armed with swagger, metal grit, and a bulletproof knack for melody, they’ve racked up platinum certifications and a record-breaking run of #1 rock singles, but on their ninth studio album God Of Angels Trust - the Danish band are tearing up the rulebook.
Swapping meticulous planning for pure instinct, and conventional songwriting for playful experimentation, it’s the sound of a band rediscovering their fire by setting everything they know ablaze. Written and recorded in a whirlwind six-week creative burst, it’s an album that swings between the apocalyptic absurdity of the fantastically titled ‘In the Barn of the Goat Giving Birth to Satan’s Spawn in a Dying World of Doom’ and the heart-wrenching vulnerability of ‘Lonely Fields’ with ease, underpinned by total liberation.
A bold reset for a band nine albums deep, we caught up with frontman Michael Poulsen to talk about breaking their own rules, and why – after everything – God Of Angels Trust feels like the beginning of something entirely new for Volbeat.
Over the last 20 years you’ve built a legacy out of precision and structure - but on God Of Angels Trust, it seems as though you threw a lot of that out the window. What pushed you to step outside your own formulas this time around?
Poulsen - I think it was mostly because of the long break. We’re not used to having that, but after the pandemic every band was playing live, so the market became overrun. At the same time, I needed to go for a third throat operation, which takes a lot of time to heal and get back into shape. After that break, we felt so on fire. We were so excited to write Volbeat music again that it almost felt like starting over. As we had that feeling of starting over, we thought why not lean into that and imagine that we were making our first record again? That's pretty much how we approached it. Even though we have so many years of experience as songwriters and musicians now, we took it very easy and worked spontaneously with the riffing. It felt like the way we wrote music back in the days where we didn't know much about structure, when it was just riffing and hoping to get away with it. There’s something extremely fun and unpredictable about working like that.
It’s refreshing to throw away the book of rules on how to put a song together, because why as listeners are we always sitting around waiting for a big chorus to come in? What if it was something different that people were waiting for? That's why I came up with ‘In the Barn of the Goat Giving Birth to Satan’s Spawn in a Dying World of Doom’. I played the song to the rest of the band, and Kaspar [Boye Larson, bass] said, ‘Where is the chorus?’... There is no chorus, and that’s the point. That's how we approached the first songs that we wrote for this album. Every time there was a part where people would probably expect a chorus, we did something different. That was a funny approach, and because we had all of the experience everything went extremely fast. Eventually, the second half of my brain said, ‘What about all of this experience we have on how to put a song together?!’, and that's when we started to create songs like ‘Time Will Heal’, ‘Acid Rain’, ‘Devils Are Awake’, and ‘Lonely Fields’. Those songs have big choruses, but they still have the intensity and energy of the early recordings. We had all the material for the record done in six weeks. That included both writing and being in the studio, and we managed to pull it off somehow. We were on fire, and we wanted to get back to work.
When structure is thrown out the window, what do you hold onto as a marker of a great Volbeat song? Is it the riffs, the emotion, the energy… What is it that proves to you that you’ve got something special in the works?
Poulsen - I'm always inspired, it’s not like I'm really searching for it. I can always come up with a riff, I can always start working on a song, and we don't think about it too much. When you have a signature sound, it’s in your DNA, but that's for the people on the outside to identify. I remember at the beginning of this band, people said, ‘This is so unique and original’, but we felt like we were just stealing songs from Metallica and Manic Street Preachers! Other people couldn't hear that, but because we knew what our inspirations were, it took us a couple of records before we recognised that we had something unique and special.
The great results that are coming out of us now come from not thinking too much about what we do, and just letting it come out naturally. A great Volbeat song comes from the combination of putting a lot of different styles together, and actually making it work. We don’t want to commit to one style, and we don't care if we have a song that blends punk, metal, country, reggae and gospel together. On paper it sounds almost impossible, but for some reason it’s become a very natural thing for us. That has become the Volbeat sound.
The pace of this album process was extremely intense, with some of these songs written and recorded in just a couple of days. Being in that creative bubble is what allows songs like ‘In the Barn of the Goat Giving Birth to Satan’s Spawn…’ to come together, something that is completely wild and unapologetic. What did it feel like to give a song like that the space to fully exist?
Poulsen - A lot of fun, because it has to be unique, and it has to be fun. That was something that Lemmy from Motörhead told me back in the day. We were on tour together, and we sat down to talk about music. He said to me, ‘Michael, remember that it has to be fun. Without the fun, it's nothing’. He's totally right, so for us to be able to pull this off… It has to be fun. We were having fun making the album, and I hope that the listeners can hear that.
Because of that ethos of fun and freedom, this album has a little bit of everything in it. There’s thrash, punk and doom, but also some classic rock influences and a Johnny Cash-esque twang. Is that reflective of your own personal taste in music?
Poulsen - Absolutely. I grew up with parents who were constantly listening to music from the fifties, and when I moved out, I missed all of those records. I started collecting them myself, and then by eight years old I had started listening to classic heavy metal too. By the age of ten, I was listening to more extreme music, and I was always open-minded to music. As long as it touched me, it didn't really matter what it was. A lot of different styles gave birth to Volbeat, and I'm thankful to my family for having such a huge impact on my taste.
Despite the chaos and spontaneity, songs like ‘Time Will Heal’ and ‘Lonely Fields’ show that even in the madness, there’s deep vulnerability here. As you’ve gotten older, do you feel more able to lean into that emotion than you did when you were younger?
Poulsen - As an older person, I can put more words into my feelings. When you’re younger you can be a little bit more frustrated, and you don’t truly know what life is, so everything is about experience. You learn in life that whilst there are good days, there are also bad days. You shouldn’t drag yourself down on the bad days because they go hand-in-hand with the good ones. You should always be as positive as possible and remind yourself that it's going to turn around.
As a father, I'm so much more aware of life now. I’m aware of the time that we have on earth, and how I would like to spend mine. I want to spend it with the people that I love, but the world has become an extremely crazy place. There’s a lot of that going on in this record, and that’s what the album cover shows too. We put our kids to bed, and we want them to believe that the world is a beautiful place filled with unicorns and ice cream… But it's not. Outside the door, there’s a coldness, and an evil that’s been created by humankind. The opening track ‘Devils Are Awake’ sums that up. There’s so much that we have to trust in every day - rules, recommendations, laws and religious directions - only to see them being broken by the creators. So, where do we put our trust? Of course, it is a beautiful world, but it’s also a scary world. There are a lot of powerful people who should not have any power, and they’re ruining it.
You welcomed Flemming C. Lund in as lead guitarist for this record. What does his presence add that you knew Volbeat needed for this era?
Poulsen - I have known him for many years, since I was 17. Back in the day I had a death metal band called Dominus, and he had his own death metal band called Autumn Leaves. We did some shows together, and so he has been a good friend for a long time. I didn’t see him for a while because I got so busy when I started Volbeat. Having him on board now though, it's amazing. He’s got a great personality, and he’s an extremely talented guitar player. I'm very thankful to have him on board, both as a person and as a great musician. He’s given the band the energy that we needed for a record like this.
You’ve said that in a lot of ways this feels like you’re releasing your first album all over again. Whilst there are similarities, what would you say is different about the story you're telling with God Of Angels Trust?
Poulsen - Experience, and that comes into a lot of different things. We’re more aware of what we're doing, we’re better at our craft, we can express ourselves better, and we’re executing the game plan better. At the same time though, it allows you to become more relaxed in everything you do.
How does it feel to be nine albums deep and still finding new ways to be excited about this band?
Poulsen - A lot of people spend half of their lives trying to figure out what they want to do, and that's a tough mental battle. For me though, I knew what I wanted to do very early in life. I knew that I wanted to be a musician, not for fame or success, but just because I love playing music. I know the feeling that I have when I listen to a good song, and I wanted to create those feelings for myself with something I had written. I knew that was going to be my path, and I was determined to stay on that path and make my dreams come true. I’m thankful that I found that out early on, and I don’t take it for granted even now that I’m 50 years old. I know that this is my craft, and it’s something that I believe I'm good at. This is my direction when it comes to work, and my passion. Now though, the most important thing for me is being a dad. That role is number one, but there’s a great comfort in knowing what I'll be doing for the rest of my life.
When people listen to this record - from the wildness of ‘Satan’s Spawn…’ to the anthemic pull of ‘Acid Rain’ - what do you hope they walk away with?
Poulsen - When we start the process of writing a record, everyone in the band needs to be comfortable and having fun. You hope that you can share that feeling with the listeners, because it’s truly special. We know how music speaks to people emotionally, and it's a great gift to invent something that can move people. Having said that, you will win some and you will lose some. That's just part of life, and it's something we always remember when we create music. You cannot expect everyone to like it, and it's been proven that the bands with the biggest success are the ones that divide the water. We are totally aware that we cannot satisfy everyone, so we are simply satisfying ourselves. Hopefully, people get something out of it, but if they don’t… There are a million other bands they can listen to.
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God of Angels Trust, the ninth album from Volbeat arrives June 6th via Republic/universal. Order the album - HERE
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