Album Review: Volbeat - God Of Angels Trust

For as long as Volbeat has been around, one thing has always been true about them; they are inconsistent. Both from album to album, and within each one, there is a massive gap between their best and worst songs. They write some of the most unique and catchy metal out there, but they also write some of the most generic as well. It has meant I have always been somewhat of a fan of theirs, but I have never been able to fully commit to calling myself one.

I was worried as this album cycle opened, because in the time since Volbeat last released a record, Michael Poulsson put out a record with his death metal side-project. I was afraid of that approach creeping into Volbeat's sound, dragging them into something that doesn't play to their strengths.

I hate to say I was on the right track when those thoughts arose. There are fewer of Volbeat's typical hooks, and more moments where the songwriting veers wildly from one riff to the next as if a riff collage is the point of the song. Poulsson's vocals get layered to the point of obscurity in some places, and overall there feels like less focus on the melodies than has been present in quite a while. Death metal songwriting is something quite different, and I don't like hearing it in Volbeat to this degree.

The worst offender is "In The Barn Of the Goat Giving Birth To Satan's Spawn In A Dying World Of Doom", which not only has an absurd title that makes me cringe, but jumps from part to part with no concern at all for how it all works together. The first single, "By A Monster's Hand", offended me as a songwriter. The song speeds up the tempo when the solo comes in, then drifts back down for the final chorus. What? If the tempo is going to be shifted, it should carry through the final chorus to carry through the extra energy. By reverting back, it gives the impression they had a solo section already written, and threw it into this song without bothering to make sure it fit.

Little things like that make the difference when the core ideas aren't shining so bright as to blind us from seeing the flaws. These songs are not Volbeat's best by any means. A big issue is that so many of the riffs and melodies are sounding like bits from their past songs. I've lost count of how many times they're basically re-written "Sad Man's Tongue", which they essentially do for the opening of a song here again. We're a far cry from the days of "Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood", which might be the last time Volbeat sounded like they had new tricks up their sleeve.

Volbeat is a mixture of thrash/groove metal and old time rock. When they get that right, there's nothing like Volbeat, and they don't need to do anything but follow the blueprint. When they get in trouble is when they try to drift too far into their heaviness, because doing so sucks the fun out of the melodic component. Their chugging riffs are fine when the songs are hooky, but they aren't interesting enough to be the core component of the song we're supposed to remember. Unfortunately, Poulsson's foray into death metal has brought too much of that into Volbeat.

I can't say I'm disappointed, though, because I learned long ago that counting on Volbeat to deliver does not come with the best odds. I wanted more, but I didn't expect it.