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Consequence’s Metal Week continues with a special edition of Crate Digging, a recurring feature that takes a deep dive into music history to turn up several albums all music fans should know. In this edition, Volbeat singer-guitarist Michael Poulsen shares 9 essential metal albums from the 1990s, plus one bonus selection. Keep checking back for more Metal Week features, and be sure to check out our list of the 75 Best Metal Albums of All Time.
Growing up near the Danish capital of Copenhagen, Volbeat‘s Michael Poulsen was exposed to the burgeoning Scandinavian metal scene at an early age — musical encounters that would shape his own future as an artist.
He witnessed the birth of the influential Swedish death metal sound first-hand, as Entombed maxed out their HM-2 pedals. He was there for Darkthrone’s death metal days. From taking the train to obtain a long-awaited copy of the new King Diamond record, to binging Megadeth with his buds, Poulsen was a student of the genre, and he let his many influences seep into the multifaceted metal sound music of Volbeat, who are fresh off the release of a their ninth studio album, God of Angels Trust.
With the new album now on shelves and a summer US tour set to kick off July 17th in Denver, we reached out to Poulsen — a veritable expert on 1990s metal — for our “Metal Week” edition of Crate Digging. Take a trip back to the early ’90s metal scene with these nine albums (plus a bonus 1989 LP that was just on the decade’s borderline).
— Jon Hadusek,
Senior Staff Writer
Death – Spiritual Healing (1990)
As a huge Death fan and Chuck Schuldiner fan, there was just something really different about the Spiritual Healing album when it came out. Of course, I was already aware of the Screaming Bloody Gore album and the Leprosy album, which were more straightforward old-school death metal with horror lyrics. … With this Spiritual Healing album, when it came out, you could totally hear the difference in the way Chuck was approaching songwriting. He was definitely becoming a better songwriter and aware of structure in songs and melodies on top of it. And he developed his growling style even more. So he took it to the next level. … There was also a big change in the way he was writing lyrics. It was more realistic stuff — what was going on in society in America or just globally. And he had this amazing lead guitar player, James Murphy, with him. I just love his solos. So, Spiritual Healing to this day is still one of my all-time favorite death metal albums.
Stream Spirital Healing on Apple Music | Buy on CD/Vinyl
English (US) · 