Playing Those Mind Games

VOLBEAT’S MICHAEL POULSEN AND ROB CAGGIANO ON THE PENT-UP ENERGY AND FALSE STARTS THAT LED TO THEIR BACK-TO-BASICS NEW ALBUM, SERVANT OF THE MIND

- Jon Wiederhorn

IN MARCH 2020, when it became clear that Volbeat (and every other artist) would be off tour for months due to the Covid outbreak, frontman Michael Poulsen started writing the follow-up to the band’s 2019 album, Rewind, Replay, Rebound. As a gift preview for fans, Volbeat released two songs from the album — “Wait a Minute My Girl” and “Dagen Før” — on June 2, 2021. The former is a ramped-up slab of psychobilly that sounds like the Misfits crossed with the Cramps (replete with piano and sax solo). The latter is a passionate rock ballad with female vocals, light arpeggios and long, slow guitar hooks. Both songs were started before the pandemic and were two of the first recorded for Volbeat’s eighth studio album, Servant of the Mind. The upbeat tunes were well-received; “Wait a Minute My Girl” became the band’s ninth single to top the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart.

Anyone who thought the rest of Servant of the Mind would offer more of the same — when it surfaced six months later — was in for a surprise. Almost all of the songs on the new record are as heavy as Metallica’s Black Album (one of Volbeat’s greatest influences), and almost as dark.