VOLBEAT — The Strength/The Sound/The Songs (review)

VOLBEAT — The Strength/The Sound/The Songs album cover Album · 2005 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"The Strength/The Sound/The Songs" is the debut full-length studio album by Danish metal act Volbeat. The album was released through Mascot Records in September 2005. "The Strength/The Sound/The Songs" was recorded by producer Jacob Hansen during two different sessions in August 2003 and July 2004. Five of the tracks from the first session are actually the same as five of the tracks from the "Beat The Meat (2003)" demo. We´re talking the exact same recordings, just featuring, in some cases, different songtitles.

The music on "The Strength/The Sound/The Songs" is heavy metal with a strong 50s rock´n´roll feeling/image and an occassional nod towards harder edged music styles. Lead vocalist Michael Poulsen (who used to be frontman in Danish death metal act Dominus) has a vocal style that can be described as sounding like Keith Caputo (Life of Agony) meets James Hetfield (Metallica). It works well for the most part, but listening to later albums by the band, it´s obvious that Michael Poulsen at this point, still needed some time to hone his vocal skills.

The 55:11 minutes long album features 15 tracks, and if you ask me that´s at least 3 - 5 tracks too much. While tracks like "Caroline Leaving", "Pool of Booze, Booze, Booza" and "Soulweeper" are of a great quality, and the memorability factor is generally high on most of the material, there are simply too many fillers on the album that lack noteworthy hooks. When that is said "The Strength/The Sound/The Songs" is still a pretty great album and I fully understand why it paved the way for one of the greatest adventures in Danish metal history. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is fully deserved.
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