Volbeat - 'Beyond Hell/Above Heaven'

Band on the verge of breaking through may still do so, but this album is disappointing.

It was bound to happen. Commercial success and mainstream acceptance is slowly but surely making headway in Volbeat’s direction, and Beyond Hell/Above Hell seems destined to push this Danish band over the edge in terms of crossover appeal.  

Strange that this—Volbeat’s fourth LP to date and weakest overall—will be the album to truly “break” the band in terms of North American success. After all, Volbeat has enjoyed massive, MTV-grade appeal overseas since the release of their 2005 debut The Strength/The Sound/The Songs, with each successive album—2007’s Rock the Rebel/Metal the Devil and 2008’s Guitar Gangsters and Cadillac Blood—garnering more and more acclaim for the band.

Of course, with great success. of which a string of opening dates for the mighty Metallica must certainly count, comes great temptation to give in to the lowest common stylistic denominator. That is sort of what Beyond Hell/Above Heaven does, even if Volbeat themselves might not realize it overall. While the album still possesses the band’s trademarks—Elvis and Danzig-styled crooning, death/thrash riffs and a punk ‘n roll soul—it can’t really shake the shade of pop flirtation which has marred some of the band’s recent compositions.

Beyond Hell/Above Hell doesn’t really rise to occasion in terms of songwriting, at least not compared to the standout tracks of the past, and the album’s end result is nothing if not a yawning disappointment for longtime Volbeat fans.

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.