Professionally filmed video footage of VOLBEAT‘s entire June 8 performance at the Rock Am Ring festival in Nürburgring, Germany can be seen below.
VOLBEAT will take part in this summer’s Monster Energy’s Rock Allegiance Tour alongside HIM, ALL THAT REMAINS and AIRBOURNE.
“The fans have made our North American visits thus far this year great fun and truly memorable,” VOLBEAT guitarist/vocalist Michael Poulsen said in a statement. “We are looking forward to headlining Monster Energy’s Rock Allegiance festival tour this summer, and sharing the stage with HIM, ALL THAT REMAINS and AIRBOURNE.”
VOLBEAT‘s fifth studio album, “Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies”, sold 39,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 9 on The Billboard 200 chart. The record arrived in stores on April 9 via Universal Republic
Former ANTHRAX axeman Caggiano, who was a producer on the new disc, recently joined VOLBEAT as its new guitarist. He replaces guitarist Thomas Bredahl, who was given his walking papers in November 2011.
The new disc follows up 2010′s “Beyond Hell/Above Heaven”, which featured three No. 1 rock radio hits, “A Warrior’s Call”, “Still Counting” and “Heaven Nor Hell”.
If there was ever any question about rock ‘n’ roll being alive and well, the answer has arrived in the form of Monster Energy’s Rock Allegiance Tour. The late summer trek will feature four game-changing rock bands from four different countries, with VOLBEAT, H.I.M., ALL THAT REMAINS and AIRBOURNE on the bill.
“The fans have made our North American visits thus far this year great fun and truly memorable,” Volbeat frontman Michael Poulsen said. “We are looking forward to headlining Monster Energy’s Rock Allegiance festival tour this summer, and sharing the stage with H.I.M., All That Remains and Airbourne.”
Tour dates and on-sale information will announced in the coming days.
This year marks the third installment for Monster Energy’s Rock Allegiance. The event launched as a traveling tour back in 2011. The following year, it became a “destination festival” in Hershey, Pennsylvania that featured STONE TEMPLE PILOTS, THREE DAYS GRACE, SEETHER, BUCKCHERRY, FUEL, DAUGHTRY and more, commandeering Hersheypark Stadium over the Labor Day Weekend.
The fest returns to the road in 2013, which is exactly where it belongs. The tour will bring American audiences the very best that rock music as a whole has to offer, with a decidedly international feel. Rock music is a universal language and all the acts on this tour embody the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll without borders.
Danish superstars Volbeat, who have enjoyed #1 status at active rock radio, will share the stage with H.I.M., a cult favorite from Finland whose fans are disciple-like in their devotion. All That Remains have scratched and clawed their way out of Massachusetts and rocketed up the radio charts over the past half-decade, all the while keeping a firm foothold in the hard rock/metal scene. Airbourne have been making a name for themselves ever since emerging from Australia, armed with plenty of riffs and just as much attitude. Further details at this location.
Danish rockers VOLBEAT have released a new, animated video, for the track ‘The Hangman’s Body Count’, featured on the band’s new album, Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies. The clip can be seen below:
01 Let’s Shake Some Dust
02 Pearl Hart
03 The Nameless One
04 Dead But Rising
05 Cape Of Our Hero
06 Room 24
07 The Hangman’s Bodycount
08 My Body
09 Lola Montez
10 Black Bart
11 The Lonesome Rider
12 The Sinner Is You
13 Doc Holliday
14 Our Loved Ones
Volbeat 2013 ……. A sort of adaption of the band to the current metal scene, losing that bit of rockabilly that was previously the band’s trademark. The entrance of Rob Caggiano (Anthrax) makes this release heavier than before, and it’s often Poulsen who follows him and not vice versa, and – knowing his charisma- that’s news! They made a cover of Young The Giant, establishing a safe melody, without going fast with the tempo (we should wait until track 10 to listen to some fast rhythms) and resulting in being a bit repetitive.
The collaboration with Sarah Blackwood (Walk Off The Earth), on the track “Lonesome Rider”, sounds really interesting and brings the band back to their “Elvis Metal” roots, as we can hear on the last songs of the album.
This was fundamentally a release for the band’s career, but seems monolithic, a bit dull and with not many great ideas. After the first session of listening I would give it a 6.5/10, with an extra “half mark” just because I’m a huge fan and I would love them anyway, like all huge fans would do with their favourite bands.
VOLBEAT‘s latest album, Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies, features a guest appearance from the legendary KING DIAMOND. Today, King Diamond and Volbeat are pleased to release the Jacob Hansen mastered version of this track, titled ‘Room 24′, as a free download gift to fans. Download the track in full-quality here.
‘Room 24′ features a massive coup for Volbeat with the guest appearance from King Diamond, the legendary front man of Danish metal pioneers MERCYFUL FATE, and one of Poulsen’s musical idols.
Volbeat reveals, “I’m a huge fan of Mercyful Fate and King Diamond. Having King on the record is a huge privilege. Normally, it’s not something he does. He wrote his own lines, and it is half my lyrics and half his. It’s a weird, scary story, and he’s the perfect person for it.”
Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies is out on April 9th. The album contains the following 14 songs:
‘Let’s Shake Some Dust’
‘Pearl Hart’
‘The Nameless One’
‘Dead But Rising’
‘Cape Of Our Hero’
‘Room 24′ (feat. KING DIAMOND)
‘The Hangman’s Body Count’
‘My Body’
‘Lola Montez’
‘Black Bart’
‘Lonesome Rider’ (feat. SARAH BLACKWOOD)
‘The Sinner Is You’
‘Doc Holliday’
‘Our Loved Ones’
The video for ‘Cape Of Our Hero’ can be seen below:
Remaining dates on Volbeat’s North American tour with openers DANKO JONES are as follows:
April
6 – Ft. Wayne, IN – Piere’s
7 – Toronto, ON – Sound Academy
9 – New York, NY – Best Buy Theatre
10 – Baltimore, MD – Rams Head
11 – Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero
KCBD.com’s Tiffany Pelt reports that a man is dead following an accident during a rock concert at the Lonestar Event Center in Lubbock, Texas on Monday, March 11th.
Police say Jubal Colvin (pictured above), 39, of Abilene, TX was denied entry to a VOLBEAT concert at the Lubbock venue and was observed by private security jumping a fence and entering the premises. As the security personnel attempted to remove Colvin, LPD say he fled on foot into a restricted area that was fenced off. Police say he then fell approximately 20 feet from the hillside and struck his head on the concrete covered ground, police say.
First responders gave Colvin CPR on the scene, but police say he died at the hospital.
Fan-filmed video footage of VOLBEAT‘s entire March 9 in San Antonio, Texas can be seen at this location. A couple of the clips are available below.
VOLBEAT has released the video for “Cape Of Our Hero”, the first single from the Danish band’s upcoming album, “Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies”. The song has just hit rock radio, while the clip tells the story of a young man who looks back at his youth and remembers his father as the most heroic figure in his life. Frontman Michael Poulsen told The Pulse Of Radio that the song was very personal to him. “I lost my father four, five years ago and I believe that every man in this universe, you know, they have their heroes and most of us are looking at our dad as a big hero,” he said. “And so, of course, I’m singing about a little boy who lost his father, and then at the same time he loses his belief in his superheroes.”
“Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies” will be released on April 9.
Denmark’s VOLBEAT have released a video for the Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies album track, ‘Care Of Our Hero’. The clip can be seen below:
Volbeat has recorded an album that seamlessly brings together all of the band’s influences and reshapes them into something gleaming and new. Planned for release in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on April 5th, in the rest of Europe on April 8th, and in North America on April 9th via Vertigo/Republic Records/Universal Music, Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies is a record that’s rich with stories and characters woven throughout its lyrics. Some are real – like the noble lady outlaw Pearl Hart, who held up a stagecoach to buy medicine for her dying mother, or Lola Montez, the erotic dancer with her infamous ‘Spider Dance,’ or ‘Black Bart’, the gentleman highwayman who wrote poems for the people he robbed. Others are entirely fictional. ‘The Nameless One’ is a cautionary tale of dabbling in the dark arts, featuring the mysterious and sinister character of the title. Elsewhere, ‘Room 24,’ featuring KING DIAMOND, was inspired by a terrifying experience in a hotel room somewhere in the heart of America.
VOLBEAT has recorded an album that seamlessly brings together all of the band’s influences and reshapes them into something gleaming and new. Planned for release in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on April 5th, in the rest of Europe on April 8th, and in North America on April 9th via Vertigo/Republic Records/Universal Music, Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies is a record that’s rich with stories and characters woven throughout its lyrics. Some are real – like the noble lady outlaw Pearl Hart, who held up a stagecoach to buy medicine for her dying mother, or Lola Montez, the erotic dancer with her infamous ‘Spider Dance,’ or ‘Black Bart’, the gentleman highwayman who wrote poems for the people he robbed. Others are entirely fictional. ‘The Nameless One’ is a cautionary tale of dabbling in the dark arts, featuring the mysterious and sinister character of the title. Elsewhere, ‘Room 24,’ featuring KING DIAMOND, was inspired by a terrifying experience in a hotel room somewhere in the heart of America.
Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies finds the core trio of Michael Poulsen (vocals/guitar), Anders Kjølholm (bass) and Jon Larsen (drums) joined by former ANTHRAX/THE DAMNED THINGS guitarist Rob Caggiano, who produced the album with longtime Volbeat co-producer Jacob Hansen.
“It’s a new vibe for Volbeat,” says Volbeat main man Michael Poulsen. “You’ve got everything – the rockabilly stuff, the melodies, the ultra-heavy stuff, the Western motifs and the big rock songs. It’s everything that Volbeat are all about, but taken even further.” The album title is a phrase that evokes another time, an era when elegant lawbreakers were the rock stars of the day. It tips its fedora to everything from the bad men (and women) of the old west to the old school metal bands who influenced the young Michael Poulsen to form his first band, Dominus, back in the early 90s.
As with so many classic albums, the seeds of Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies were sown on the road in Europe and the US. That’s where Poulsen began playing around with ideas and riffs, recording them on his mobile phone and directly to an amp. “Melody, lyrics, everything – it’s just working non-stop in my head,” he shares. When the band eventually returned to Denmark, it was time to go to work. The band leader recalls, “We came back from the U.S. after touring a lot over there, and isolated ourselves in our own homes for six months to finish off the album. That peace was something I needed. Even though it’s very inspiring to write on the road, it’s more comfortable to write at home.”
It was there that the album truly began to take shape. Poulsen would close the curtains, turn off the light and draw inspiration from the old Western movies he’d watched as a child with his father. Watching the old spaghetti westerns he’s watched with his father provided a catalyst for inspiration. He offers, “Sometimes it’s just about the right feeling – the scenery, the lines, the dusty look. I have my own soundtrack when I see those kind of pictures.”
You can hear the influence of the Old West right from the start in ‘Let’s Shake Some Dust’, an evocative intro track that features harmonica from acclaimed blues harp player Paul Lamb. You can hear it again in the rampaging ‘Black Bart,” which Poulsen describes as “our country-MOTÖRHEAD song,” and in the banjos that pepper the chorus of the hard-as-steel “Doc Holliday,” a tribute to the legendary lawman and associate of the Wyatt Earp gang. But Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies is no country & western record. If it was a car, it would be a 1973 Stutz Blackhawk with monster truck wheels – vintage and modern, stylish and muscular.
You can hear echoes of classic 50s rock’n’roll in the soaring ;’Pearl Hart’, and the live classic-in-waiting ‘Lola Montez’. The band’s metal roots come to the fore via the heavy riffage of ‘Dead But Rising’ and ‘The Nameless One’, while the ghostly ‘The Lonesome Rider’ – which finds Michael duetting with Sarah Blackwood of Canadian band WALK OFF THE EARTH like a modern day JOHNNY CASH and JUNE CARTER CASH – beats with a rockabilly heart. Elsewhere, they bring some greased-back energy to ‘My Body’, a cover of the hit song by US pop-punk outfit YOUNG THE GIANT, while the brooding album closer ‘Our Loved Ones’ is the nearest thing they’ve ever written to a ballad. Poulsen offers, “When I was growing up, my dad and mother played a lot of old records – ELVIS, FATS DOMINO, JERRY LEE LEWIS and CHUCK BERRY. I love that stuff – it’s a drug somehow. My own record collection growing up was metal. But I listen to a lot of different styles of music. If something moves you, I don’t care what it is.”
The track ‘Room 24′ features a massive coup for Volbeat with the guest appearance from King Diamond, the legendary front man of Danish metal pioneers MERCYFUL FATE, and one of Poulsen’s musical idols. He reveals, “I’m a huge fan of Mercyful Fate and King Diamond. Having King on the record is a huge privilege. Normally, it’s not something he does. He wrote his own lines, and it is half my lyrics and half his. It’s a weird, scary story, and he’s the perfect person for it.” Additional guests include Anders Pedersen on slide guitar, Rod Sinclair on banjo and
Jakob Øelund on double bass.
The album itself was recorded in the legendary PUK Studios, in Randers, Denmark. With Jacob Hansen and Rob Caggiano sharing production duties, which brought a new dynamic to proceedings. Poulsen reflects, “I love Jacob Hansen’s work. He’s part of Volbeat, and we worked together on all the albums so far. I started flirting with the idea of bringing Rob in as a producer too because he produced Anthrax and The Damned Things, and I like the sound of what he did there. I thought, ‘That could be a really cool combination,’ as both are quality guys with really high standards.”
In closing, Poulsen sums it up in sharing, “I chose this way of living because I love playing music and I love touring. We wanted to write, we wanted to be inspired by our idols, we just wanted to rock out. That, for me, is what music is all about.”
Check out a Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies trailer below:
Volbeat’s North America tour starts tonight with openers DANKO JONES. The itinerary is as follows:
March
6 – Dallas, TX – Palladium Ballroom
7 – Oklahoma City, OK – Diamond Ballroom
9 – San Antonio, TX – Freeman Coliseum
10 – El Paso, TX – Speaking Rock Entertainment Center
11 – Lubbock, TX – Lonestar Pavilion
12 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
14 – Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues at Mandalay Bay
15 – Los Angeles, CA – House of Blues
16 – Anaheim, CA – House of Blues
17 – Reno, NV – Knitting Factory
19 – Boise, ID – Revolution Center
20 – Missoula, MT – The Wilma Theater
22 – Seattle, WA – Showbox At The Market
23 – Spokane, WA – Knitting Factory
24 – Calgary, AB – MacEwen Hall
25 – Prince George, BC – CN Centre
27 – Dawson Creek, BC – EnCana Events Centre
28 – Edmonton, AB – Shaw Conference Centre
29 – Medicine Hat, AB – Cypress Center
30 – Regina, SA – Brandt Centre
April
1 – Saskatoon, SA – Credit Union Center
2 – Winnipeg, MB – MTS Centre
3 – Minneapolis, MN – Mill City Nights
6 – Ft. Wayne, IN – Piere’s
7 – Toronto, ON – Sound Academy
9 – New York, NY – Best Buy Theatre
10 – Baltimore, MD – Rams Head
11 – Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero
Danish rockers VOLBEAT recently announced that former ANTHRAX and THE DAMNED THINGS guitarist Rob Caggiano has officially joined the band. Caggiano served as producer on Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies, alongside long-time production partner Jacob Hansen, who produced and mixed the band’s prior four albums. Caggiano was a member of Anthrax for two tenures from 2001-2005 and again from 2007-2013.
Caggiano made his live debut with Volbeat on February 19th in Copenhagen, Denmark at Store Vega. Fan-filmed video is available below:
Volbeat singer/guitarist Michael Poulsen commented on Caggiano joining the band when the announcement was made: “The collaboration with Rob in the studio was so inspiring and in good spirit that we the decided to keep him. Basically we went into the studio as a three piece and came out as a whole band!”
Volbeat returned to Denmark after nearly two years of absence to world premiere brand new material from their forthcoming album. The band will allow their fans a unique opportunity to hear brand new material plus Volbeat classics in intimate club surroundings.
Volbeat will then hit North America in March with openers DANKO JONES. The itinerary is as follows:
March
6 – Dallas, TX – Palladium Ballroom
7 – Oklahoma City, OK – Diamond Ballroom
9 – San Antonio, TX – Freeman Coliseum
10 – El Paso, TX – Speaking Rock Entertainment Center
11 – Lubbock, TX – Lonestar Pavilion
12 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
14 – Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues at Mandalay Bay
15 – Los Angeles, CA – House of Blues
16 – Anaheim, CA – House of Blues
17 – Reno, NV – Knitting Factory
19 – Boise, ID – Revolution Center
20 – Missoula, MT – The Wilma Theater
22 – Seattle, WA – Showbox At The Market
23 – Spokane, WA – Knitting Factory
24 – Calgary, AB – MacEwen Hall
25 – Prince George, BC – CN Centre
27 – Dawson Creek, BC – EnCana Events Centre
28 – Edmonton, AB – Shaw Conference Centre
29 – Medicine Hat, AB – Cypress Center
30 – Regina, SA – Brandt Centre
April
1 – Saskatoon, SA – Credit Union Center
2 – Winnipeg, MB – MTS Centre
3 – Minneapolis, MN – Mill City Nights
6 – Ft. Wayne, IN – Piere’s
9 – New York, NY – Best Buy Theatre
10 – Baltimore, MD – Rams Head
11 – Philadelphia, PA – Trocadero
Caggiano offers a detailed explanation of the chain of events that transpired in adding: “Wow! I have to say I’m completely blown away by the turn of events over the last few weeks here in Denmark and at this point an update is definitely in order. To start with, I came to Denmark about a month ago to produce the new Volbeat record which in and of itself has been an incredibly exciting adventure from a producer’s perspective thus far. However, I’m extremely happy to say my relationship with these guys will not end there as it turns out……it’s just beginning! Michael had asked me on the phone before I got out here if I would play some guest solos on the new album in addition to my other duties and of course I was thrilled about that and agreed to do so. When I actually got to Denmark and started going through the material, this turned out to be so much more than that. After weeks of collaboration between Michael and I it became quite clear that we had an amazing creative chemistry together and a huge mutual respect for one another. It’s so refreshing and inspiring to be creative again on a songwriting level that words can’t even describe it and the vibe between Anders, Jon, Michael and I is just awesome. I’d say an artistic relationship like this one is very rare and it’s also something I don’t take for granted. When the guys asked me if I was interested in joining Volbeat the other day, my jaw just about hit the floor! It actually didn’t even register in my brain properly until the next morning but I gotta say, it also didn’t take me long to decide. It really isn’t the way I envisioned the rest of my year to play out but at the same time, THIS feels more “right” to me than anything I could have possibly imagined and I’m going for it! To all my fans, family, friends and overall supporters that have reached out to me over this last month wondering if I’m ever gonna play guitar again or what I’m up to in general etc……..See you all soon my friends and get ready for a wild ride!!!”
Poulsen adds: “Half of the album tracks will take you into the world of outlaw gunslinger stories sometime in the 1800s. Some of the characters are true legends, while others are fiction. The listener will hear inspiration from classic spaghetti western movies which gives you a clue to the album title and cover artwork.”
Poulsen also offers additional detail on the recordings sharing: “We are still ‘rocking out’ in the studio, and working on the last details. We are very excited about this album. We feel that we’ve achieved the goals we set out. The heavy stuff on the album is perhaps more old school heavy riffs than earlier, and the rock songs rock out with tons of melodies and take us into unchartered territory. All that without losing the Volbeat sound that is the cornerstone of our band.”
Artist: VOLBEAT
