‘Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies’ never has a dull moment, as you don’t know what concoction they are bringing next.

Think Trouble and you have ‘Dead But Rising’ to the tee. The company of King Diamond has a captivating impact, it is an instant favorite of mine from the album. ‘Room 24’ saturates doom, darker and psychedelic elements, the rhythm section is rich and grimy. The heaviness carries through into ‘Room 24’ with a special guest. You can clearly hear the thrash influence from Rob Caggiano and Michael Poulsen with his Metallica inspiration. This effervescent flow lures you to ‘Dead But Rising’, proving they aren’t just soft rockabilly rockers but hard edged metallers too. ‘The Nameless One’ deluges nicely into a bit of progressive rock, the solo significantly has the tonality of the classical era with the typical mode of chord changes as evident in rock music. Volbeat have a effervescent flow that is distinctive and thriving. He dynamically changes during the chorus’ showcases lighter and softer shades to his voice. A very deceiving start, as from the hype you expected an in your face metal riff, however it is a definite ear pleaser as you tune your ears to the build up, that releases Michael Poulsen’s vocals in ‘Pearl Heart’. The mixture of hard rock and metal is greatly executed, Micheal’s vocals are still as sharp and as mighty as ever. The album invites you in with an acoustic start, a country and western feel, topped with a blues harmonica, ( ‘Let’s Shake Some Dust’). Could it be the newly found member from Anthrax Rob Caggiano is the key to unleashing their heaviest album yet? The album comes across as a musical journey combing the genres from the past few decades into something solid. It demonstrates their metal heritage more than they have in any previous albums. 2010 was the release of “ Beyond Hell/ Above Heaven “ and now Volbeat return with their fifth album “Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies”.

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