"Cape Of Our Hero", the new video from Danish metal rock 'n' rollers
VOLBEAT, can be seen below. The song comes off the band's fifth studio album,
"Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies", which will be released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on April 5, in the rest of Europe on April 8, and in North America on April 9 via
Vertigo/
Republic Records/
Universal Music.
Seamlessly bringing together all of the band's influences and reshaping them into something gleaming and new,
"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
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 U.S. 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 and 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 U.S. 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.
Michael 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."
"Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies" track listing:
01.
Let's Shake Some Dust02.
Pearl Heart03.
The Nameless One04.
Dead But Rising05.
Cape Of Our Hero06.
Room 24 (feat. King Diamond)
07.
The Hangman's Body Count08.
My Body (YOUNG THE GIANT cover)
09.
Lola Montez10.
Black Bart11.
The Lonesome Rider (feat. Sarah Blackwood)
12.
The Sinner Is You13.
Doc Holliday14.
Our Loved OnesLimited-edition bonus disc
15.
Ecotone16.
Lola Montez (harp version)
17.
7 Shots (live Wacken 2012)
18.
Evelyn (live Wacken 2012)
19.
Evelyn (2010 demo)
