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Cinemetal

VOLBEAT ARE NEITHER “HEAVEN NOR HELL”

 Thursday, November 4th, 2010 at 10:30am by

The appeal of the Danish hard rock band Volbeat is almost completely lost on me. They’re certainly not the worst band out there, but their popularity seems to be ever-growing, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. The music is pretty simple stuff, and, sure, it’s kinda catchy, but it’s not super-catchy. The vocals are just this side of moose rock. If their music played over the opening credits of an American Pie movie, no one would bat an eye.

I just don’t get it.

And now the band has released a boring-as-fuck video for the song “Heaven Nor Hell,” just to make extra-sure that I’m not convinced. So, uh, they’re performing in front of some upside down cars, and then the cars blow up, and then it rains tires, and…? What? What the fuck is happening? Is there a metaphor I’m missing? Did someone seriously think that raining tires would be cool? Was the lumber yard already booked that day? What’s going on here???

“Heaven Nor Hell” comes off of Volbeat’s latest, Beyond Hell/Above Heaven. The album is being released digitally this coming Tuesday, but not physically until December 15, I guess because the label wanted to ensure that no one would purchase a physical copy.

-AR

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  • cougar party

    “The music is pretty simple stuff, and, sure, it’s kinda catchy, but it’s not super-catchy. ”

    That pretty much sums up every Danzig release, but people seem to like it.

    • sYgnal

      Yet, the difference is that, besides Elvis Presley, Danzig had a brilliant & original voice. No one was doing that stuff back then. And the music didn’t sound like it was made with samplers & Pro-Tools. Those guys had fucking talent.

  • dornerd

    I’m from Denmark and I used to like Volbeat, but it seems with the latest two albums they’ve become ever more poppy and radio friendly. They’ve gained alot of new fans, people who normally listen to less heavy stuff and I guess they’re kind of a good gateway band to heavier music. But they’ve lost many of their original fans from back when what they did was a bit more ”pure” and heavy, so to speak.

    • HoneydewWilkins

      I love Volbeat’s first two albums, but agree that it looks like they’re getting poppier with each subsequent release. What I liked about the first two albums was you could hear the obvious rock n’ roll\country\punk influences in each song, but they still sounded heavy and had a metallic edge. On the newest album they’re spreading the influences too thin. It’s like, here’s the “metal” song, here’s the “rockabilly” song, here’s the “radio single” song, etc. If you’re reading this website and wondering how any metalhead could like them I would recommend these songs to give them a fair chance (as opposed to just viewing the videos for the singles they put out):

      -You or Them
      - Mr. and Mrs. Ness
      - Fire Song
      - Danny and Lucy

      I did get to see them in concert and they put on a good show. The lead singer Michael can bring it live.

      • Type-O-Negative

        +1

        That is precisely why I can’t get into it. I dig where they are coming from except instead of the songs being mixtures of all their influences they are just different songs from different genres. Which is good for a mixtape but not a coherent album by a single artist. (Though there are some bands who make it work, but very rarely does that happen.)

  • http://sebastian.linnet@gmail.com NIgguh

    I’m not proud to live in the same country as them. I’m not proud of saying that they’re from the same country as me.

  • Kso

    I love this band so much

    • Matt

      1

  • matty2fatty

    I always love seeing when you guys trash a band who’s banner ad is staring me in the face right above the review. It makes me feel like your reviews are actually reviews and not just pandering.

    • brookh

      Or when they trash bands, then give their records to us as contest prizes

  • Deth

    Sorry to contradict everyone but I love this band. It’s not because I don’t like heavy music and it’s not because I’m hopping on some bandwagon. They make good music with a bunch of influence from the 50s, Elvis, Johnny Cash, and old Metallica. It’s different, unique, and extremely catchy. Even some friends who don’t care for them on first listen admit they have a song or two stuck in their head.

    It’s all personal taste but I’ve found a lot more who love this band than hate them. Sure, they are an acquired taste, but once they grow on you they have a lot of redeeming value.

    • wha?

      Amen! I hear some Social D in the mix, too.

  • yzermantiis

    I didn’t know Metallica started in the 50′s?!

    • Deth

      I didn’t know you couldn’t tell the difference between a comma and a colon.

  • http://www.myspace.com/signorojoswe Kaffebaggel

    If another one of my “non-metal” friends suggests this band to me i will bring upon them horrible death. It is definetly not “like the kind of music i listen to”!
    It’s metal for the “insert country here’s got talent” crowd….

  • John

    Less this more phobia

  • Kuranes

    I think this guy’s voice is great. I never even would have made a connection to “moose rock” (which I assume means stuff in the Creed/Godsmack vein). I love the song “Sad Man’s Tongue”.

  • wv

    new album is great, but they should have picked a diffrent song to promote it. there are so many better songs on the album, i just dont think this one is the track you want to try and get new fans with.

    also, wouldnt it have been smart to have all the release dates covered before you ship it or put it on the interwebs? like they are trying not to sell many copies of this.

    • Deth

      It’s been out for a month overseas but they never had US distribution until now, and it’s only for this album – no inidication that it’s for their back catalogue yet.

      • Matt

        Are you kidding me? Their albums have always been in the US through their old label, Mascot.

        • Deth

          I wasn’t aware of that, whenever I’ve bought their albums they have always been an overseas release (didn’t matter if it was a store or online). Spinefarm has the US distribution for this new album.

          • Matt

            Where did you find that bit of information? It should be UME, they’d still have the option.

  • 13

    they make me ashamed of beeing danish, we got a few realy great bands, but that volbeat crap is the only one making it out there

  • the hate machine

    A friend turned me on to Volbeat 3-4 years ago and I love that band. Its metal that i can listen to with my woman and she doesnt get that pissed off, tired look on her face from being pummeled by the music. They sound like rockabilly meets old school metal. You get the heaviness without all the negative ,downward spiral vibe to the songs.They are Metallica if Jaymez could actually sing well.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Feo-Sky/1246850687 Feño Sky

    God this shit is horrible. And the vocals are really auto-tuned to death.

    • Deth

      See them live and you’ll realize there are very little production tweeks used or needed.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Feo-Sky/1246850687 Feño Sky

        Maybe they don’t need them. I’m not question their talent. But the fact that this is overproduced is undeniable.

        • Deth

          It seems to be the latest thing to think albums are “overproduced.” Because an album sounds good it’s somehow bad (kinda ironic).

          After seeing Volbeat live on two occasions I can say for certain they aren’t overly produced, what you hear on the disc is pretty much what you hear live. The vocals are brought up a little higher on disc because they have such a strong vocal presence and the music benefits from it.

          • http://www.facebook.com/people/Martijn-ter-Haar/1666278076 Martijn ter Haar

            It’s the latest thing to say albums are overproduced, because a lot of current albums *are* overproduced. They sound thing, digital and have no dynamics whatsoever. There is no room for the crunch of the guitars.

            Good production is what Terry Date did for the big metal bands in the nineties: neat, but with power.

            I’m not particular fond of this singers voice either. There’s very little soul in his singing and the Danish accent reminds me of Soren Lerby.

          • Plasmaterial

            The legendary Jacob Hansen produced this…sounds great to me, apart from the subpar music Volbeat dish out.

  • Kazz

    I love this band. I’d say that they are indeed extremely catchy and if you’re looking for any kind of ‘pop metal’ there’s none better than Volbeat. This isn’t one of their better songs that I’ve heard, but its solid, just not much metal in this one.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dan-Burton/784250631 Dan Burton

    Only very recently did I find out that the singer of Volbeat is the same singer of the awesome mid to late 90s death metal band Dominus. Their first two albums ‘View To The Dim’ and ‘The First 9′ are prime slabs of death. In my opinion, which is usually right.

    Check em out for ya’selves. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDJ6Yj2gVF8

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Elijah-D-Bliss/1791485986 Elijah D. Bliss

    The music video is whatever, but I know I’ve always dug them because of their whole rockabilly vibe. I mean, it’s not amazing or anything, but it’s hella fun, especially to a lot of people I know who aren’t that into metal, but really dig rockabilly or psychobilly shit.

  • http://thenumberoftheblog.com/ groverXIII

    I dig Volbeat because they’re combining metal with rockabilly/psychobilly in a way that no one else really does. The new album is catchy as hell.

  • shpostal

    Maybe most of Volbeat’s fans aren’t quite old enough or haven’t explored rock’s history yet, because if one does, you get a band that writes real songs – not overwrought screaming and endless blast beats that pass themselves off for music anymore.
    What Volbeat has done is applied the good parts of metal, the tone of the guitars, with the rebellion and song style structure of the earliest rock n’ roll bad boys, like Sun Records-era Elvis, Gene Vincent and Johnny Cash. Metal fans are weird – on the one hand they worship the late great Ronnie James Dio and Rob Halford, for good reason. Dio could and Halford can sing, really sing. On the other hand, there seems to be some rule that you have to sound like you have irritable bowel syndrome and grunt and belch over songs that barely have enough of a hook to hang on to.
    I love Volbeat and their approach. It’s called melody and hooks, for those unfamiliar with it. Apparently Metal Sucks isn’t acquainted with it either. or they’d be using their clout to encourage young bands to ditch the vocal farting because it’s old hat and cliched. The uniqueness of the human singing voice never stales because each voice stands out on its own. Everybody’s belches pretty much sound alike.

    • Kazz

      While I agree with you about what Volbeat does, and I’m a big fan of theirs, it’s pretty obvious you’re ignorant about death metal or other metal genres. ‘Catchiness’ isn’t the be all, end all when it comes to music anyway.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Martijn-ter-Haar/1666278076 Martijn ter Haar

    Volbeat know how to write a decent catchy uptempo poprock song, which is more than of a lot of bands can be said. But the mix of hard rock and rockabilly elements of sounds forced and unnatural. The harmonica in Heaven Nor Hell e.g. feels completely tacked on. I also don’t like the singers voice – too Green Day – but that’s a matter of taste.

    There are currently quite a few very good bluesy hard rock bands out there: Night Horse, Dirty Sweet, The Parlor Mob & Graveyard e.g. Strangely none have the success of Volbeat.

  • Plasmaterial

    Fuck Volbeat, listen to Raunchy.

  • Icewind666

    Volbeat are incredible.

  • http://kvltofpersonality@yahoo.com kvlt of personality
    • http://thenumberoftheblog.com Snagon

      Well this is of course true, I do love me some Pokemon Black and White is to be released soon and I am Excite

  • Brent

    This song could be on Green Day’s “American Idiot” album and I don’t think anyone would notice

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Fritz-Pettersen/536945538 Fritz Pettersen

    C.e.o´s at Metallica inc: “Danish rockabilly dollar? hmm, we could do that!”

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Javier-Vega-Moyano/1637238085 Javier Vega Moyano

    Me molestaria en escribirlo en Ingles…pero me toca un pie que me entendais o no…este Blog esta lleno de redactores que son un autentico cancer…quien o que coño sois vosotros para pasaros media vida criticando y poniendo verdes a todo grupo que saca un poc la cabeza del movimiento underground?…

    enserio..me dais una lastima tremenda, VolBeat, no son santo de mi debocion…pero despues de mucho tiempo leyendoos…hoy me habeis scado de mis casillas…os he leido poner a NIN a caer de un burro…y de repente, confesais que no habiais escuchado Fragile, y que ahora resulta que NIN molan….vaya criterio formado que teneis..

  • logan

    *throws dildo at axl*