“When management told us that all these tours had been cancelled, I said: ‘Okay, I’m gonna write a new album,’” says Michael. Like so many albums of the past few months, Servant Of The Mind was an unplanned arrival. Volbeat and the British grindcore pioneers go way back: Napalm frontman Barney Greenway appeared on the Volbeat song Evelyn on 2010’s Beyond Hell/Above Heaven album, while Napalm cover artist Frode Sundbø Sylthe created artwork – a striking, Hipgnosis-style image of a person removing his own mannequin-esque face – for the Danes’ new album Servant Of The Mind. “One of the great bands,” he says admiringly. Michael has already hit the Sex Beat racks, alighting on the ‘N’ section, from where he pulls out Napalm Death’s paint-stripping turn-of-the-millennium album Enemy Of The Music Business. I don’t listen to music made after 1985,” he adds, looking like he’s not joking.

“The big Beatles Let It Be box set, the new reissue of the Stones’ Tattoo You and the vinyl box of The Kinks In Mono. “I’ve got some stuff behind the counter already,” says the lugubrious drummer. “I don‘t think they’ve made a bad record.”īy contrast, Jon Larsen is gravitating towards something more vintage. “I loved their other albums,” says Michael.

Both Michael and Kaspar have their eye on Crawler, the brand new record from Bristol postpunk rabble-rousers Idles. There’s already a low-level power struggle brewing. “Wait – you’re paying us to go record shopping?” Kaspar Boye Larsen asks disbelievingly. Today, Poulsen and bandmates Jon Larsen (drums) and Kaspar Boye Larsen (no relation, bass) are just regular record shop customers once more, albeit ones with 400 Danish krone (around £50) of Classic Rock’s money to spend on albums as part of our Record Store Challenge.

Volbeat album