MICHAEL POULSEN 'Threw Away The Rulebook' On New VOLBEAT Album 'God Of Angels Trust'

By David E. Gehlke

Pardon the pun, but VOLBEAT founder and frontman Michael Poulsen has been rather vocal about his love for classic death metal. This affinity spurred the creation of his recent ASINHELL side project, which he spent a good chunk of 2023 and 2024 promoting while having the added benefit of giving his vocal cords some much-needed rest. Poulsen has battled vocal issues for years while VOLBEAT's popularity has increased — a conundrum that could imperil the career of Denmark's most popular rock/metal export since, well, ever. Fresh off a third surgery and buoyed by a more spontaneous approach to songwriting, VOLBEAT has emerged with their first studio album since 2021's "Servant Of The Mind" in the form of "God Of Angels Trust".

Two key elements are at play here: First, Poulsen opted to compose half of the album without regard for conventional songwriting structure, eschewing the standard verse-pre-chorus-chorus formula. Second, the album marks the introduction of new lead guitarist Flemming C. Lund, who replaces Rob Caggiano, who left the band in 2023. And with his vocal cords repaired, it has all led to Poulsen believing VOLBEAT is in a better spot than they have been in years, which is what he shared with BLABBERMOUTH.NET.

Blabbermouth: How much did doing ASINHELL impact VOLBEAT? Was it good to get that out of your system?

Michael: "Absolutely. Before I left for the tour for ASINHELL, I had pretty much already written the VOLBEAT album. I knew that after coming home from the ASINHELL tour, I'd need a break and would still be in death metal mode. I promised the VOLBEAT guys that before I left for the tour, all the material would be ready, and we'd have to rehearse it when I came back. Before that, writing the ASINHELL songs and rehearsing them definitely gave me an opportunity to do something that I had wanted to do for many years, but I just didn't have the time. Some people may know I come from a death metal background, back in the day with tape trading and being on the street promoting your demos because there was no internet. My band was DOMINUS. I ended that band because I wanted to have more freedom to get my inspiration from all the '50s music my parents had been playing in our childhood home. Then, I formed VOLBEAT, where there were no rules on how to connect different styles. The success of VOLBEAT became huge. We were constantly touring, constantly on the road, constantly writing albums, just really working hard. There were never enough hours to have a side project. For so many years, there have been people asking, 'Are you ever going to return to death metal?' I said, 'I don't know because I need to find the time to do it.' I also became a father. It seemed like an impossible task, but, of course, we all know the pandemic, and there was more time to stay at home, dig a little bit deeper into whatever you have in the basement, and clean up everything you had in the house. It brought me back to a lot of great memories. I felt that it was time.

"When I wrote the ASINHELL album and had to start afterward writing the VOLBEAT album, I felt something really refreshing because every time I had to pick up the guitar, it was for writing a new VOLBEAT album. If I was not touring, then I was at the VOLBEAT 'office,' as I call it, at home, working the phones. At the time, as I was doing the ASINHELL album and going on the tour, I managed to get the VOLBEAT hat off my head. That was great. I already managed to do that along the way when I had my first child and second child, but when I picked up the guitar to write the new VOLBEAT album, it felt like we were starting all over again. It felt like a new project again, and it felt like we were kind of going full circle with our material, where we caught our tail at the very end. I said, 'This is an interesting observation. What do we do with that? Maybe we could use some of that 'innocence' approach that I have for ASINHELL.' That was like going back to an old, dusty bicycle in the basement that you thought you didn't have, but you still managed to ride. I just remember back in the day when you didn't have any idea or experience of knowing what structure was in a song. What was the hook? What was the pre-chorus? What's the middle section? What was even the chorus? Back in the day, when I wrote death metal, it was all about riffing and putting vocals on top. It worked. It worked out great. Some of the early releases with VOLBEAT worked like that. I said, 'Would that ever work again in VOLBEAT now that we have so many years of experience as songwriters and entertainers and the understanding of writing a song?' It also has something to do with where you have to throw away the rulebook on how to write a song. You have to throw away everything called 'structure' and the luxury of being in the studio for a long time; I said, 'If we look at ourselves and at least try to think, I don't know, like we are 14, 15, 16 years old again, and we really don't have much time to be in a rehearsal room. We don't have too much pocket money to get into the studio. Let's just throw away the tools that we managed to put in our toolbox for so many years.' I just picked up the guitar. The first song I wrote was, 'In The Barn Of The Goat Giving Birth to Satan's Spawn In A Dying World Of Doom.'"

Blabbermouth: That's a song title of the year candidate, Michael.

Michael: [Laughs] I came to the rehearsal room with that title, and Kasper [Boye Larsen, bass] and Jon [Larsen, drums] were laughing, 'Are you serious?' I said, 'I'm really serious.' There's a point in the madness. Just listen to the song.' I started playing it, and Kasper said, 'Where's the chorus?' I said, 'Exactly! Every time we sit down as listeners, whether we're listening to rock music or pop music or classic rock, we're always waiting for the chorus to kick in.' Somehow, we've become predictable, which is okay. It can be great. I fancy predictable things as well. After so many years of writing, I said, 'What if something else came that was the essence of the song instead of the chorus?' They said, 'What is that?' I picked up the microphone, and we went to the middle section, [sings melody]. They said, 'That is great!' I said, 'Yes! That's going to be the essence and climax of the song.' Instead of waiting for the chorus, they're going to wait for the stupid, fucking horror movie line. Imagine a stadium or arena singing that along! We had a lot of fun with that. That was the naive, innocent approach to the whole thing. We actually managed to stay in that bubble halfway through the songwriting. Then, the second half was almost like the second half of the brain, 'Hey, what about me with all the experience putting songs together with structure? Can I write a song, too?' [Laughs] That's where 'Acid Rain', 'Time Will Heal' and 'Better Be Fueled Than Tamed' was born." But it all went very fast. I wrote a song on Monday, and we rehearsed it on a Tuesday."

Blabbermouth: That had to be refreshing after doing it the other way for so long.

Michael: "I was so locked in. As soon as I drove my kids to school for kindergarten, I went back and took my morning run and had a good meal; then, it was all about picking up the guitar and writing a song that we could rehearse the next day in the rehearsal room. Then, we went home and did the same thing again until we had ten songs. That basically took us a month, four weeks. Then we went into the studio with the material and said to [producer] Jacob Hansen, 'Let's do this like we did back in the day. Not too many takes. You have only one chance when you're onstage. Not too many layers. No guests. No cover songs. Just straight to the bone, live from the studio, then we had some guitars on top of my vocals.' We were only there for 13 days. I don't know how we pulled it off, but we did. I don't know if we can do it again. The timing was just great. We were in such good spirits. This was extremely fun, and we felt good about it. It was very productive. We were extremely proud after so many years of being able to pull it off and sit back and enjoy something you're really proud of and knowing, 'Oh my god. That didn't take five years of pain and torture because we couldn't make up our minds for certain reasons.' It feels fresh for us."

Blabbermouth: You mentioned the more structured songs. They sort of fill in the blanks around the less structured and more metal-sounding numbers. Did they come out as easy as the others, given how little time you left yourself to write?

Michael: "After we were halfway through the songwriting process, where we had so much fun shooting from the hip, like a gunslinger, it was like, 'Okay. Next week, we're going to come up with a new song so we can come up with those big melodies again.' I love writing those songs. When we started those songs and brought them into the rehearsal room, they felt like they belonged. I think that with the balance of the more spontaneous, innocent way of writing, we still needed some of the things that we got so good at over the years. When we heard all of the material together, it was a great fit."

Blabbermouth: On top of all of this, you are coming off vocal cord surgery. How are you feeling? Did it impact the writing or recording at all?

Michael: "I feel excellent. I went through a third operation. It was a laser operation, and we are really good at it here in Denmark with our hospitals. I'm very confident. That was also the reason why we pulled the plug [on VOLBEAT] for a year. I went out touring with ASINHELL because I had to recover after the surgery so I could come back in good shape. I actually had to learn to speak again. In ASINHELL, I could concentrate on playing the guitar and talk a little bit. [Laughs] It was nice being onstage and just being the guy who did not say anything and played the guitar. After recovering and training my voice, I got ready in time to use my voice in the studio. The time I was writing the VOLBEAT album, I could not even sing. I could not even talk. It was melodies that were stuck in my head! It felt refreshing to get them out when we could finally rehearse them a little bit and record them in the studio. There are definitely things that I do on the new record that I haven't done before. Then, there are things I can't do anymore because I'm not allowed to. I have to take care of my voice. When we go out and play live, there will definitely be things I will not be doing anymore. People will probably not notice. I have my ways of changing different things so I can cover up. I'll sing things a little bit differently. But I'm okay. We went to Brazil last year around December to play two shows with IRON MAIDEN, which was amazing. That was the first time after the operation that I actually had to see if my voice could actually stand up and do what it's supposed to do for two big live shows. I felt great. Our sound guy said, 'You sounded stronger than ever. You sound great.' Hopefully, that's what I'm going to do when we go on tour. I'll keep it on that level, but at the same time, also take good care of it."

Blabbermouth: Can we address the lead guitar spot? Flemming is also in ASINHELL, and he's on the new VOLBEAT. Will he become permanent?

Michael: "Flemming is one of my very good friends. I've known him since I was 17. Back when I was in DOMINUS, he had his death metal band, AUTUMN LEAVES, so we've been playing shows together. Yes, he did the lead guitar on ASINHELL and was the lead guitar player on the tour. He helped VOLBEAT on the last tour when we said goodbye to Rob after many years of work. The deal right now is that Flemming has a commitment to VOLBEAT for the entire year. That's where it is right now. We like to take it one step at a time. Who knows what tomorrow brings? The world has become a very crazy place to be in. The whole music scene is a big challenge for a lot of bands at the moment. We take it one day at a time where we have an agreement where Flemming has committed himself to VOLBEAT for the year for live shows and whatever comes along with it. Right now, he's just as much a VOLBEAT member as anybody else. Then, when we're in December, we will see what the next plans for VOLBEAT will be. But he's doing an amazing job. He's an amazing guitar player and an amazing personality."

Blabbermouth: I'm sure you're ready to stop changing members.

Michael: "It's truly something you don't want to go through. Through the years, there have been different members of VOLBEAT. But we all started playing music at an early age. And some of the guys in VOLBEAT have been on the road for so many years since we were young dudes, even before VOLBEAT. We've been very dedicated to our work. We didn't spend time on school or education. We were all working to a certain point. There was a time when we couldn't make a living doing what we do now. Through all the years, you look at it as a marriage. You start a band, you look at each other, and you hope it will last forever, just as you do at the chapel when you think you have found the right one. You know what? So many things happen in a marriage and a career. You look at each other, and it doesn't work. It doesn't work for different reasons. Instead of putting each other through a painful situation—it's not right to use time together if you really don't know how to do it. That can be for so many different reasons when it comes to relationships or working together. But it happens. It has happened to VOLBEAT and many other bands. When it happens, you always say, 'This is the last time I'm going to go through this. Oh my god! Another new member.' You have to soldier on."