Volbeat

Copenhagen hard-rock quartet Volbeat debuted in 2005 with the rather cockily titled album The Strength / The Sound / The Songs, but their track record has proven they can back up that claim on all three counts. Strength was never going to be a problem for this band: Singer/guitarist Michael Poulson cut his fangs in the death-metal outfit Dominus. With Volbeat, however, he pursued a bold new sound that fused his love of double-kick-drummed thrash with the outlaw spirit of early rock ‘n’ roll—and, let’s face it, few artists with his black-hooded pedigree would dare introduce their new band with a riff-ravaged cover of the Dusty Springfield standard “I Only Wanna Be With You.” As Volbeat became a chart-topping force in Denmark, an invite from Metallica to open their 2009 North America tour helped push the group’s fourth album, Beyond Hell/Above Heaven, onto U.S. airwaves, by which point Poulson’s formative demonic bellow had smoothed into a radiant, radio-ready voice perfectly suited to open-sunroof anthems like “Fallen.” Volbeat have continued to hone their finely tuned formula of hooks and heft to even greater stateside success, with 2016’s Seal the Deal & Let’s Boogie cracking the Billboard Top 5 thanks to the punchy power pop of “Black Rose” (a duet with kindred Canadian rocker Danko Jones). And the hit parade continued full steam ahead with 2019’s Rewind, Replay, Rebound, as its revved-up, Misfits-esque standout, “Die to Live,” gave the group their eighth No. 1 single on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart.