This is one that would keep Captain Jack Sparrow and his band of brigands dancing away up on the decks as they sail on across the rough and rugged seas on their swashbuckling adventures in search of buried treasurrrre. ‘Twas only late last year that news broke out that Napalm Records latest signing was a Scottish pirate metal outfit by the name of Alestorm, and with them having never crossed my ears before, I was intrigued to find out what this debut would sound like.
It’s more or less a prerequisite that if you are planning to sing about pirates you must have a certain amount of charisma and wit to pull it off, and the pirate thing has such a novelty factor that you could get away with not being the best musicians on the planet. Although Alestorm have got it well sussed, combining tight musicianship with a fine element of humour, packed with enough clout to make Davy Jones retreat in fear.
The album comes marching in with “Over The Seas”, which has a vigorous upbeat rhythm that holds it all together as guitars and keyboards successively let out glimmering solos. The vocals throughout the album are powerfully projected with a clearly mimetic pirate-esque enunciation. With a nautical swagger, title track “Captain Morgan’s Revenge” puts a weighty emphasis on the lyrical tale as the music quietens down during the verse, building up with some ploddingly paced pounding drums and a flouncing of bombastic keyboard symphonies. “Terror On The High Seas” is a high speed number that carries a massive compound of fun, with supersonic keyboard lines that could well leave Dragonforce choking on their dust.
The true metal spirit of Running Wild is embedded in their sound, and clearly manifests on tracks like “The Huntmaster” whose chorus chant of “Hail! Huntmaster” has massive sing-along potential and leads into some pure traditional heavy metal riffing. Similarly, “Set Sail and Conquer” has some formidable galloping riffs which are intertwined with overblown keyboard melodies that attract my mind back to Turisas’ anthemic “Battle Metal”, being momentarily fractured by a bizarre interlude where everything stops and shifts into what sounds like fairground music.
With its simple nursery rhyme-esque rhythm “Nancy the Tavern Wench” is one drinking tune that will get the tankards swaying clumsily to and fro spilling mead upon Nancy’s tavern floor. The second drinking song of the album, the (not so) subtly named “Wenches and Mead” brings to mind Korpiklaani with its insanely infective chant of “I want more wenches, more wenches and mead” as the vocals copy the melody projected behind them. This also has a fun power metal riff which joins together the chorus and the verse.
We are reminded of the bands Scottish heritage at the end of this CD when the guys discordantly join up to sing their own version of “Flower Of Scotland”; a rather lovely way to end an album and is fated to become the end note to many a Scottish piss up. Overall this is a fun filled debut well worth getting your hands on if you enjoy the likes of Turisas, whom, if this album is anything to go by, really need to be on top form if they are to avoid getting blown overboard when Alestorm tour with them in March.
http://www.alestorm.net
