He has beautiful range and power that drags his simple – yet effective – riffs and song structures into a realm of great, catchy, powerful, fun songwriting. However, Poulsen gives his range and style a flavor that encompasses the aforementioned vocalists, but in a way that makes it his own. Again, while the succeeding Volbeat albums are great for their concepts and structure, Volbeat’s debut is the best example of an all-out album with enough diversity – and the right amount of “sameness” – to give it completeness.Īs on succeeding albums, Michael Poulsen’s vocals are clean and powerful – in the realm of Elvis Presley meets Johnny Cash (more prominent on the sophomore release) meets Danzig. I can say for sure that this is Volbeat’s most fun album due to its mish-mash of great tunes that don’t follow a concept or order any further than the organization of the complete album. What can I say? This is a fun fucking album. Does this affect the quality of the music and bring this debut to the level of a multiple-album band that releases a bullshit compilation album of demo material, singles, unreleased material, and/or re-recorded material? Fuck no! This is a strong debut and a great way to introduce a collection of impressive tracks that never made a decent release in Europe or the states.Įverything from the catchy as all hell Caroline Leaving and Say Your Number to the ballsy Rebel Monster and Pool of Booze, Booze, Booza to the mellow (yet heavy) Soulsweeper and the Dusty Springfield cover of I Only Wanna Be With You, gives the album diversity, groove, and melody. The Strength/The Sound/The Songs is probably best described as a compilation album of all of Volbeat’s previous demos, strung together to produce their first official debut album.

Volbeat album release in europe