Volbeat found their groove several albums ago and have stuck with it ever since. That groove is a mash-up of two parts metal, one part punk rock, and one part good old-fashioned rock’n’roll of the kind frontman Michael Poulsen was weaned on by his late dad.
They’ve tweaked the formula since – notably in the case of Michael’s voice, meaning there’s a lot less ‘James Hetfield strangling a goat’ in the singing department these days – but it’s still recognisably Volbeat. It’s a formula that works. It might not have kicked the Danes to the same level as Michael’s heroes-turned- patrons Metallica, but a return to Wembley this year proves their success in the UK is catching up with that in mainland Europe. And it’s deserved, too: their frontman is a hell of a songwriter, one of the best in action today.
