Words and pix by Robert Forte
Volbeat, despite selling millions of albums while also playing sold out shows globally for years on end now, continue to seem like they’re still a rather underappreciated band at times Fortunately, that condition’s existence never applies to how Volbeat’s actual fan base, particularly in a live setting, feels about the Danish rockers as they continue to delight legions of souls on the current run of their Greatest Of All Tours Worldwide tour that stopped at the Xfinity Centre in Mansfield, Massachusetts this past week.
Out supporting the well-reviewed, God of Angels Trust record, Volbeat’s ninth studio release, the Copenhagen-based quartet survived a lightning storm in Massachusetts that threatened even the performance’s viability to go on to deliver what had to be one of the venue’s most jubilant rock-oriented sets of the entire summer.
To their credit, Volbeat are not trying to wow or win audiences over with a myriad of bells and whistles such as elaborate stage production designs, over-the-top light shows or even with the somewhat standard overkill of pyrotechnics many rock and metal bands often deploy in concert these days. Instead, lead vocalist and rhythm guitar player Michael Poulson, drummer Jon Larsen, bassist Kasper Boye Larsen and current touring lead guitar player Flemming C. Lund simply lean heavily on a ton of smiles, mountains of positive energy, their sublime live chops as players and of course, their brilliant catalogue of underrated recorded music to win the masses over.




That’s exactly what Volbeat was able to do this past week in Massachusetts as the band dropped a 16-song set list that featured more than a few of their hits, a few surprises and of course a number of tracks from their latest release, God of Angels Trust. The new material continues Volbeat’s penchant for effectively mixing soaring vocals alongside beautifully arranged melodies. The record shifts both sonically and tonally around a bit, but remains anchored by foreboding riffs that blend nicely when juxtaposed against the catchy groove-infused cadence that Volbeat is famous for.
Two of the highlights from their set in Massachusetts came from God of Angels Trust in the form of By a Monsters’s Hand, a track that effectively mixes heavy hooks with an even heavier sense of macabre, as well as Sad Man’s Tongue, a rockabilly infused stomper that Poulson began with a Johnny Cash inspired take on Ring of Fire.




The front half of Volbeat’s set, which was delayed for close to an hour by a wicked lightning storm, proved to be the more polarising part of the evening as it featured much more of the music their fans are both familiar with and have come to love. What Volbeat live show could even remotely go off the rails when it begins with a three-song salvo of The Devil’s Bleeding Crown, Lola Montez and A Warrior’s Call?
The only hiccups on the night in Massachusetts were perhaps towards the end of Volbeat’s time on stage. The band chose to close out things with For Evigt, a lesser known track off of 2016, Seal the Deal & Let’s Boogie, as well as an Ozzy Osborne tribute in the form of Black Sabbath’s, Children of the Grave, a cover that Richmond, Virginia metal heroes Lamb of God, quite frankly, do much better.
However, Volbeat bounced back with a rendition of one of their two tracks that has reached number one on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Chart, Still Counting to close out the night of music. Still Counting also saw the band pull up about thirty kids from the audience to help them sing the chorus of the song. It was a final feel-good moment for Volbeat’s New England area faithful to soak up on a night that seemingly featured one feel-good moment after another.




The growing-in popularity-by-the-second, Halestorm, fronted by perhaps one of the most electric female performers on the planet today – the fiery Lzzy Hale – helped open things Volbeat. Sadly, the audience only had the opportunity to take in a truncated set by Halestorm after a storm saw the Pennsylvania-based rockers deliver just over a twenty-five-minute set of music that typically has run over an hour in duration in most markets of this current tour’s run.
That’s a damn shame on a number of levels. First and foremost, that was a downer because, quite frankly, Halestorm, is one of the most engaging and, for lack of a better term, fun rock bands to see in any live setting these days. Hale and company not only rock audiences to their cores and force them to engage with them in concert by the sheer will of their performance, but they also do so in a way that comes off as entirely genuine. Thus, when Halestorm typically finishes any one of their scintillating live sets, the crowds they often play to are always left begging for more, while at the same time feeling as though their best friends just finished playing a concert only they were invited to.




Halestorm did exactly that in Massachusetts, despite the fact that their time on the stage was cut short by over fifty per cent. The other downer in terms of Halestorm’s performance was the fact that on this tour ,the band is often playing nine of the twelve songs on their latest release, the supernal Everest, which only came out a bit more than a week ago on August 8. Everest, Halestorm’s sixth studio release, is infectious, ambitious and chock-full of the type of heady riffs and poignant melodies that the band has made their bones on since their inception back in 2009.
New songs including Watch Out, a track that is as heavy as anything Halestorm has ever produced and the exceptional Like a Woman Can, still managed to make the shortened set list in Mansfield with the latter being a flat-out showstopper that effectively showcased how Hale can both easily as well as quite brilliantly, mix heavier riffs with soulful lyrics to create something that’s as beautiful as it is unique.
The first band to actually take the stage on the night in Massachusetts this past week to open things up for Volbeat were California-based metalcore outfit, The Ghost Inside. Not to take anything away from them, as they are a beloved metal core band that was primarily active and much more relevant to the scene a decade ago, they simply aren’t the right fit for this particular tour.




Volbeat and Halestorm are not only more mainstream rock bands to begin with, but both acts’ vibes on stage are ones that ooze fun and promote smiles and hugs throughout each of the bands’ time on any lighted stage. The Ghost Inside, on the other hand, are an aggrieved, doom metal band that mixes clean and unclean vocals with heavy riffs and even chunkier breakdowns. The band themselves seemed to recognize how out of place they may be coming off on this tour, as lead vocalist Jonathan Vigil took the time mid-set to remind the audience that although they’re an aggressive and heavy band, they’re also about having fun too.
Credit to The Ghost Inside for having that kind of self-awareness and for also delivering a superb set of metalcore throughout their shortened time on stage. Here’s hoping that the next time they embark on a lengthy tour, they do so as either a headliner themselves or as part of a bill that is much more aligned with their music as well as their own fan base.