- Mon, 2011-04-18 11:46
Towards the end of 2010 Danish genre-bending rock band Volbeat delivered an absolute stunner of an album with Beyond Hell/Above Heaven. Lead singer Michael Poulson’s adoration of Elvis Presley and all things old school rock ‘n’ roll channelled through Social Distortion punk chops and the thrashier side of Load-era Metallica made for an album of wickedly catchy hard-rock tunes with a rockabilly twist.
16 Dollars is possibly the song on which that rockabilly influence comes through most clearly. The acoustic-guitar led verse has a lip-curling, quiff-sporting Little Richard feel to it as it hammers along at a hundred miles an hour, but when the chorus hits it’s all Misfits-style sing-along punk-rocking.
The video, which the band describe as “1959 aesthetics wrapped up in smoke, fire and twisted love,” is a Sin City-esque b-movie tribute featuring hapless cops, a car chase, a beautiful femme fatale and a motorcycle-riding undead outlaw. What more could you ask for?
