Album Review: Volbeat – Rewind, Replay, Rebound

It’s unlikely that anyone is looking to Volbeat, a group who have cultivated their brand – essentially Metallica playing quiff-tugging, whole-hearted homages to Johnny Cash and Social Distortion – for nuanced takes on gender politics. But in terms of misreading the room, in 2019 throwing in a lyrical reference to ‘juicy pussy’ not five minutes into your new album is a fail. That the line, from ‘50s rock’n’roll tribute Pelvis On Fire, is delivered while frontman Michael Poulsen attempts an Elvis Presley impersonation, only compounds the fist-gnawing horror.

From this nadir, Rewind, Replay, Rebound oscillates between the playful (Die To Live, featuring Clutch’s Neil Fallon, a killer chorus and joyous boogie-woogie piano; punchy Peaky Blinders tribute Cheapside Sloggers) and the genuinely painful (Eurovision ballad-in-waiting Rewind The Exit), without ever transcending mediocrity. And, even taking all this into account, seven albums into their career, Volbeat still sound like a band desperately searching for an identity to call their own.

Verdict: KK