One of the Volbeat guarantees is that they will cover a lot of ground within the realms of their style and sound – from the surf rock romp of the breezy ‘Wait A Minute My Girl’ to the next track on the album, the doomy ‘Sacred Stones’, which could easily have sat on any post- Ozzy Sabbath album with pride, to ‘ Dagen Før’ from the Entombed (yep!) HM2 powered Death meets Groove Metal of ‘Becoming’ (that builds from hell to a hook to rival ‘Lola Montez’) to the quirky, catchy, Country-tinged duet with Stine Bramsen of Alphabeat – and they will do so with confidence and bluster in a way that means everything on display is defiantly and definitely Volbeat.

Underpinning it all is a root Misfits -meets- Metallica -meets-Rockabilly core, and everything you want from a Volbeat album is here in spades, with every aspect – the psychobilly, the dirty Danzig moments, the Black album worship (‘Mindlock’), the arena rock choruses (‘Heaven’s Descent’ anyone!?), the big chugging stomps and the Dusk til Dawn satani-vampiric dance of ‘The Devil Rages On’ – all dialled up and all consistently delivering. Form is temporary when class is permanent. Particularly in the Volbeat camp, because, Servant of the Mind ( EMI ), their twentieth anniversary and eighth studio release, is their best to date. There’s a pervading feeling that age dilutes quality and / or heaviness, yet nothing could be further than the truth.

A whole plethora of written-off bands pushing well into their second, third, even fourth, decade with career best releases prove it. The last ten years of evidence proves it. Our staff voted-for album of the year top 3 picks for this year to prove it. At what point do we (I? Is it just me by now…? in which case, I’ll get with the programme asap!) change our default position that bands twenty years deep into their careers shouldn’t be producing their best stuff in a heavy music arena? Cos it’s bollocks.

Best volbeat album