Musically the instruments get the job done. It’s not quite as pervasive as the western theme of Outlaw Gentlemen, but it’s a cool area to explore. Other than that, you get your “harder” track in Loa’s Crossroad, which is part of a storyline involving Voodoo that closes up the album. Most of the songs are these sorts of pop rock anthems, with some even starting with some vaguely metal intros that lighten up immediately to become much more vocal driven. The general public must not have minded though, as Bliss also got a ton of airplay as well, even hitting high up on those precious billboard charts.

The intro and even the chorus seem just so close it’s suspicious. The other single, The Bliss, however, just so transparently reminds me of Lola Montez from Outlaw Gentlemen. I wouldn’t say this is self plagiarization, but the band aiming to create a surefire hit while sticking incredibly close to a working formula. The Devil’s Bleeding Crown is the band’s bouncy anthem, with a loud singalong chorus that makes it the perfect single.

The album also has a pair of covers, not just one! Battleship Chains comes and goes, though a southern rock cover by Volbeat is super logical given their Elvis underpinnings, but the cover of Rebound by pop punk band Teenage Bottlerocket is just downright painful due to the hokey subject matter and lyrics of the source material. Seal’s guest star is Danko Jones, a dude who I swear will guest on any album if you ask him (remember when he sang a weird metal duet with Arch Enemy’s Angela Gossow in Annihilator’s “Couple Suicide?”). A definite highlight of Outlaw Gentlemen was King Diamond doing guest vocals on Room 24, bringing both his soaring singing and his scowls and stealing the show in the process. The album before this one, Outlaw Gentlemen and Shady Ladies, has a distinct wild west theme running through it, which I always felt made it pop out a bit more than Seal the Deal. Musically, the band started to sound more like an “arena rock” band with a more radio friendly manner, like your Seethers or Shinedowns, and around this time as well they started getting that precious airplay. Over time, they distanced themselves from those rockabilly styles, though the Elvis Metal vocals remained. With Michael Poulsen’s Elvis twang, they started out with a rockabilly vibe to their songs, albeit with a hard rock meets metal tinge.

Volbeat are an odd duck as far as metal bands.

Volbeat album covers