Volbeat Frontman Returns to Extreme Roots: Asinhell Is Already Working on a Second Album
Volbeat frontman Michael Poulsen continues to develop his death metal project Asinhell. The band has confirmed that work on new material has begun and that it will form the basis of the group’s second full-length album. The songwriting process is already underway, with the release expected after the musicians complete their current commitments.
The Asinhell project was created by Poulsen as a return to the extreme metal he grew up with long before Volbeat achieved commercial success. The lineup features well-known figures from the European metal scene: vocalist Marc Grewe of legendary German death metal band Morgoth, drummer Morten Toft Hansen (Raunchy), and Poulsen himself, who is focused on guitar duties and riff writing.
The debut album Asinhell — Impii Hora, released in 2023 via the iconic label Metal Blade Records, received strong reactions from fans of old-school death metal. The record stood out for its dense, raw sound and a clear connection to the aesthetics of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The band openly cited influences such as Entombed, Bolt Thrower, Autopsy, Grave, and Darkthrone.
The recording of Impii Hora also involved longtime Poulsen collaborators, including producer and bassist Jacob Hansen, a frequent Volbeat associate, and guitarist Flemming C. Lund of The Arcane Order. This lineup helped establish the project as a serious and deliberate artistic statement rather than a casual side project.
According to Marc Grewe, the band intends to further develop the ideas introduced on the debut while maintaining the aggression and directness of the sound. The new material is being written without haste but with a clear sense of direction — Asinhell remains firmly rooted in classic death metal, deliberately avoiding modern trends and compromises.
In spring 2024, the band performed its first full live show, presenting material from the debut album at a concert in Copenhagen. The audience response confirmed interest in the project not only from Volbeat fans but also from the broader extreme metal community.
At the same time, Michael Poulsen remains active with Volbeat. In 2025, the band released its ninth studio album, created after Poulsen recovered his voice following several vocal cord surgeries. Despite a demanding schedule, Poulsen emphasizes that Asinhell is not a temporary experiment but a fully realized creative outlet connected to his musical roots.
Thus, work on the second Asinhell album confirms the project’s long-term intentions and promises death metal fans a continuation of the uncompromising and aggressive path established by Impii Hora. In the coming years, Michael Poulsen’s name is likely to appear more frequently in two very different — yet equally significant — metal contexts.
