Throughout an look on the most recent episode of The Mistress Carrie Podcast, guitarist/vocalist Michael Poulsen of Danish rock and rollers VOLBEAT was requested what the music of heavy metallic legends BLACK SABBATH has meant to him through the years. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “All the things. As a result of BLACK SABBATH was the primary purpose why I began enjoying guitar. That was listening and discovering BLACK SABBATH. And it is nonetheless that band that retains inspiring, it doesn’t matter what music I do for no matter band. They’re everlasting and they’re the godfathers for a purpose. [They have had] so many nice albums, traditional albums, and really fascinating lineups as nicely. So that they meant quite a bit to me and nonetheless do.”
In a December 2021 interview with “Whiplash”, the KLOS radio present hosted by Full Steel Jackie, Poulsen credited BLACK SABBATH with inspiring a few of the music on VOLBEAT‘s eighth studio album, “Servant Of The Thoughts”, which got here out earlier that month by way of Republic Information.
“In the event you take a look at the extra heavy aspect of the fabric, it is apparent that is quite a lot of outdated BLACK SABBATH inspiration — extra from the [Ronnie James] Dio previous and from the Tony Martin [era] of BLACK SABBATH,” he mentioned. “I do love the Ozzy [Osbourne] materials, however you possibly can undoubtedly hear the inspiration from the BLACK SABBATH Dio and Tony Martin period.”
Again in January 2020, Poulsen picked BLACK SABBATH‘s “Black Sabbath” a one of many 10 songs that modified his life. He defined to Kerrang! journal: “My mother’s brother lived subsequent door to us, so I went by way of his file assortment and located an album with a sleeve that scared the crap out of me. It was a girl in a graveyard or one thing, and he informed me I used to be method too younger to take heed to it. So when he was out, I snuck into his home and put the file on, and that was my introduction to BLACK SABBATH. That was the tune that made me need to dig into that scene. Listening to that opening riff made me need my first guitar.”
VOLBEAT‘s ninth album, “God Of Angels Belief”, might be launched on June 6 by way of longtime label Vertigo/Common. The LP’s arrival will coincide with loads of summer season touring on the band’s “Biggest Of All Excursions Worldwide”.
Poulsen began engaged on songs for the follow-up to 2021’s “Servant Of The Thoughts” in the summertime of 2024. VOLBEAT was taking a year-long break from touring to offer Michael an opportunity to get well from throat surgical procedure and to tour together with his dying metallic band ASINHELL. Pushed equally by his pleasure to file a brand new VOLBEAT album and by his willpower to not observe conference, Poulsen labored on songs for a mere three weeks with bandmates drummer Jon Larsen and bassist Kaspar Boye Larsen. Amazingly, they labored on a brand new tune at each rehearsal. Three weeks into the method, VOLBEAT had organized half of “God Of Angels Belief”. That is when Poulsen determined that having no guidelines meant he might observe his muse wherever it took him, and he veered off on a unique path. He and the band nonetheless wrote and rehearsed two songs per week, however they began composing extra acquainted rock songs that drew from conventional components.
The band entered the studio with their longtime producer Jacob Hansen within the fall of 2024. As with the songwriting, Poulsen needed to work shortly and depend on intuition, so they simply plugged in and began to play. To maintain the music sounding pressing and rapid, VOLBEAT recorded stay within the studio, enjoying as few takes as doable earlier than transferring from one tune to the subsequent.
When it got here time so as to add lead guitar, there was no query that VOLBEAT would faucet Flemming C. Lund, who presently excursions with the band and labored with Michael in ASINHELL. A mere 13 days after they began working with Hansen, VOLBEAT have been completed.
VOLBEAT will return to the highway on the “Biggest Of All Excursions Worldwide”, starting in June and operating all through 2025. The tour begins in June with a co-headline Canadian run with THREE DAYS GRACE and particular visitors WAGE WAR, which might be adopted by headline treks within the U.S. with particular visitors HALESTORM and THE GHOST INSIDE, and Europe with particular visitors BUSH and WITCH FEVER, together with a second present at Copenhagen’s Royal Area on September 20.
Photograph credit score: Brittany Bowman (courtesy of Atom Splitter PR + Republic/Common)