By 
‘Rewind, Replay, Rebound’ is Volbeat’s seventh studio album: it’s crazy to think that this band is almost 20 years old. From their humble beginnings in the clubs of Copenhagen, to playing arenas and festivals around the world, Volbeat has come a long way. Their newest offering is once again filled with their unique style of music, often called ‘Elvis Metal’. Filled with big guitar riffs and 1950’s melodies the album doesn’t disappoint even if it feels a bit safe.
‘Rewind, Replay, Rebound’ has a little bit of everything for everyone. The metalheads will have fun with a song like ‘Cheapside Sloggers’, a track featuring Gary Holt from Slayer and Exodus. His guitar solo is a highlight, and fans of their first two album will certainly rejoice. Casual fans that prefer the ‘radio friendly’ sound of Volbeat will probably prefer the ballad-like ‘When We Were Kids‘ or the catchy ‘Cloud 9’. They even found room for some good old punk on ‘Parasite’ and ‘Die to Live’. The latter even features a saxophone solo that cleverly switches to guitar midway through.
The album is diverse, but strangely enough manages to sound quite uniform. The production surely helps unifying the ambiance but sometimes it also hurts the impact of the songs. ‘Sorry Sack of Bones’ might be the perfect example: the track has a great ambiance, but it is also a bit overproduced. You end up losing some of the edge that the band has when playing live. On ‘The Everlasting’, the vocals are drowning in reverb, contrasting with the sharpness of the guitar riff.
But ‘Rewind, Replay, Rebound’ has some qualities too, and I found it addicting despite my criticism. After a week of listening to it everyday, I keep putting it back into my playlist. ‘The Awakening of Bonnie Parker’ is my personal favourite. I like the vocal harmonies during the chorus and the spoken segment at the end is something Volbeat has rarely done before. The guitar solos are also abundant and well written; a track like ‘Leviathan’ is far from my favourite, but I go through it every time just to get to the shredding parts.
I purchased the Deluxe version of the album that comes with two extra tracks and a bunch of demos. Sadly, only ‘Immortal but Destructible’ is worth mentioning. It has one my favourite choruses and it puts a smile on my face every time it comes on. I found the demos to be way too close to the final product to be that interesting. Yes, they do show the raw talent of the band, but they don’t add anything to the package. The artwork however is great, and you can see that a lot of effort went into designing it.
If you are a fan, I think it’s worth it. In the end, ‘Rewind, Replay, Rebound’ is a good album and I’m really looking forward to hearing some of these songs live. I hope Volbeat will grace us with their presence after their current tour with Slipknot.
He currently works in the video game industry while continuing to write music with his own band.
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