Volbeat - Seal the Deal & Let's Boogie

It may seem unnecessary to talk about an album from last year that had not much impact on the heavy metal landscape. But Volbeat is a band that I have immense respect for and have followed closely ever since I had the pleasure of seeing them open for Metallica. They may not have an exactly avant-garde approach to metal, but they’ve done an excellent job blending their influences to create a sound that suits them well and has helped them stand out from the crowd while truly giving metal something new to breathe in.

And that is exactly why Seal the Deal & Let’s Boogie was, to me, probably (as far as metal albums are concerned) the most disappointing album I heard all year.

I’m not just writing this to bag on an album I didn’t like, because it wasn’t like a lackluster Megadeth/Slayer/(insert stylistically unwavering legendary metal band) effort or an album from another group that simply wasn’t fortunate in capturing the essence of what they were hoping to (that they know they can). The problem with this album is not that it’s Volbeat’s gimmick getting old or the band slipping in performance or running out of ideas. The issue with STD (I know, I don’t want to write it out) is that it displays the band in the aforementioned ways because it plays like it was an album Volbeat didn’t even want to make themselves.

The similarities to their “radio hit” “Lola Montez” were instantly pointed out when “The Bliss” was released, but that exact problem extends to so many other songs on the album. Generic song structures, the same overused rhythms, tempos, and chord progressions, and the overuse of the punk-esque spice that made their previous work memorable across the board give the whole album a bad taste of pandering corruption. It sounds like they or their label liked the way “Lola Montez” was received by a wider audience (which is not in itself a negative thing at all) and decided to crank out more of that in the most cheaply imitative sense possible. Listening to the tragically Nickleback-ish “Black Rose” I found myself embarrassed about recommending them to other people so much in 2009.

STD didn’t spit on their previous work or reveal some level of weakness or unfitness in the current metal environment; it tried to rip off the sound of their five previous releases (well, mostly the two leading up to this one) to disguise a lazy effort at cashing in on the newfound trend of popularity they had found.

I could go deeper into how specific moments on the album constructed this overall distasteful vibe, but it’s not anything subtle or requiring of a helping hand to point out. It’s painfully obvious, and immediately off-putting, so I’ll skip that agony. As far as specifics go, I’ll point out that, despite falling into the trap the other songs do, “Goodbye Forever” is one I can enjoy as a stand-alone piece because it does seem like the band tried to do a little more than just the formula they applied to it. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s much less boring than the rest of the album.

I’ll use the rest of this post to reaffirm my faith in Volbeat… cautiously. Seal the Deal & Let’s Boogie does not make them a bad band or condemn them to sell-out hell. But it puts them and their reputation in dangerous waters; it’s set a precedent for what is next to come. For the people like me, who this record disappointed, the pressure on the band is not to return to a heavier form or make a drastic sound change to break the monotony (but they do need to do away with this album’s monotony). Rather, their next effort will have to prove that they are worth continuing to pay attention to, prove that they are actually trying to make something unique and captivating, not a project built by the pop strategy of an album full of demographic pandering and trial-and-error radio-single attempts. This is a story that is not at all new to the metal world or music in general, and many groups have fallen from grace after allowing themselves to be used and disposed by doing what they thought would help them grow their audiences. As I said, I still think they are a band capable of producing worthwhile music, and I say that because I really think it’s up to them still. I really think they just didn’t try on this album, and if they apply themselves the way they did to Guitar Gangsters and Cadillac Blood, I still think they could do more good for the little niche they’ve nourished poorly with this album. And for their sake, as well as my wish to hear them play with the fervor I heard them play with when they warmed up the stage for Machine Head and Metallica, I hope they do.