Finding the genuinely original in this day and age is hard, especially when you’re looking in the Metal world. To quote Solomon, there’s nothing new under the sun... most bands are, after all, just ripping other, more obscure bands off. So depending on your Metal knowledge, your approach to Danish Punk-Rock-Groove-Thrashers Volbeat will be different, depending on whether the style’s new to you or not. Both parties should agree, however, that the band’s third album Guitar Gangsters And Cadillac Blood is pretty damn good. Like an unholy mixture of Load-era Metallica and sunny Cal-Punk fronted by an Elvis impersonator, Volbeat succeed where so many have failed simply by beating this formula into an excellent set of songs, diverse yet well-written and hard to forget.

Starting with the Western plucking of opener Intro (End Of The Road) and continuing right through, the Volbeat boys prove themselves to have an ear for melody, as well as a taste for a good riff. First track proper Guitar Gangsters And Cadillac Blood aims for your throat with its hand-claps and catchy vocal lines, the latter complete with Hetfield-esque snarls. Back To Prom is the song that Blink 182 (no, come back!) would have written if they were any good whilst the acoustic-backed intro of Mary Ann’s Place darkens the mood a little, some female vocals used very well indeed, before Thrashing out convincingly.

It’s hard not to enjoy this, even if you’re a po-faced Thrash fan who only listens to Tankard and won’t accept that choruses have a place in music. The excellent Hallelujah Goat alone is pretty damn close to Metallica’s finest moments, whilst however disgusted a face you make whilst listening to Mabellene I Hofteholder, you won’t be able to get it out of your head in a hurry. Moments like the Country-f(r)ied We are a nice surprise, and Still Counting mixes melody with hard-‘n’-heavy riffing wonderfully. A bit of research shows that at least one of Volbeat’s members has Death Metal roots, which you’d expect after a few listens to this, as it’s too knowing, too damn Heavy Metal to be created by people who aren’t essentially Metalheads. If you can, get the Limited Edition of the album – there’s a great bonus live track where the band do a Cannibal Corpse impression.

Having said that, it’s hard to imagine these guys being treated well if they were opening for, say, Destruction. Make no mistake; this is catchy, unashamedly cheerful music that even at its Thrashiest (Wild Rover Of Hell - sample lyrics: 'Driving the highway with nothing to do, future fading away/The stereo is pumping Metallica tunes, Ride The Lightning, oh yeah!') keeps a smile on its face. As much as Death n’Roll gets hatred from the true and pure, it did add a much-needed extra element to the mixture, and maybe that’s what Thrash Metal needs – the current situation, with wave upon wave of new identikit bands all aiming for a single fanbase who are already getting sick of it all, can’t last for long – literally guys, just Rock out! Volbeat have done that and more here, and the results are excellent, especially since the more you listen the better Guitar Gangsters... gets, the songs flowing together well and never growing old. The best Rock band you’ve never heard of? Quite possibly. It's definately a Rock band by Metalheads, for Metalheads.