Danish metallers and ALL SCANDINAVIAN favorites Volbeat just put out ‘Beyond Hell/Above Heaven’ – their fourth album in just five years. In the same period the band has played approximately a bazillion gigs around the world. Which may be the explanation why ‘Beyond Hell/Above Heaven’ is a bit of a disappointment.

It’s not that it’s a bad album. It’s just not what we have come to expect from the brilliant songwriter Michael Poulsen. There’s plenty of Volbeat’s trademark metal/country/shoutabilly fusion, but a lot of tracks seems like something we have heard before and the well intended experiments doesn’t really work.

The album does, however, contain a few goodies. ‘Fallen’ is vintage Volbeat as we know and love it, ’7 Shots’ is a nice take on the epic rock song, and then there’s ‘Heaven Nor Hell’, featuring some mean ass mouth organ playing from Love Shop’s Henrik Hall, which is plainly just a great rock song.

Download the recommended songs (or, the full album) via