| CD REVIEW Alestorm |
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Band: Alestorm Yargh, me mateys, and behold, for the Scottish foursome lot what calls ‘emselves Alestorm are back with ye second full-length album, filled with epic sing-along tunes that’ll shiver yer timbers and rock yer bones! Following the release of the debut album Captain Morgan’s Revenge in January 2008 (review by yours truly posted on the 31st of that month) through Napalm Records and the big exposure that came along with being distributed by such a renowned label, the band’s jest at dubbing themselves a “True Scottish Pirate Metal” (after “True Norwegian Black Metal) gave ‘em a bit of bad blood when in a Terrorizer interview they mentioned their music to be “…similar to Viking Metal, but without all the bullshit about Scandinavian things like Odin”. One silly fuck even went so far as to claim that “…Vikings made real history, pirates didn’t…”. That lad better not be of British origins, because their history is simply séwn with Pirate history. There was even a period in British history when a Queen pardoned all Pirate ships for their deeds of the past, as long as they would from then on raid only Spanish and French ships. Not officially of course, because there wasn’t a war goin’ on at the, but Her Highness simply didn’t like the regents of those other countries. In time of war, by the way, the British Pirate ships were called upon but all too frequently to help out in the fight against The Enemy! Anyway, we’re drifting away from the main item at hand (or àre we?). The band’s sudden success (and heavy touring schedule) brought about a couple of dire moments in the last year. First, drummer Ian Wilson started to feel that he could no longer give the band his full commitment, so in June he left his place to German Alex Tabisz. That replacement would only be temporary though, as Wilson returned to the band in late August. In September band leader Christopher Bowes (lead vocals & keyboards) announced that guitarist Gavin Harper had been found to lack the necessary drive and enthousiam he once had, and had therfore been asked to leave. As his replacement Bowes introduced Tim Shaw (of Premithon and Fyrdsman), but he left the band after only a brief period. So, bassist Dani Evans switched to guitar, and to fulfill his former tasks the band recruited Waylander’s Gareth Murdock. The band then started work on the Leviathan EP (a 4-tracker including two songs off the upcoming full-length album including the EP’s title track; a German version of “Wenches And Mead”, re-titled “Weiber und Wein”; and the previously unreleased “Heavy Metal Pirates”), which would be released on January 2009. But before that release the band started a second European tour in October (with Svartsot and Gwydion). Áfter the EP’s release, and after the band finished recordings for the full-leength, Alestorm alied with Týr and Suidakra for an all-out assault on the USA starting late February. From April to May Alestorm and Týr, with Heidevolk and Adorned Blood, went on another European tour titled Black Sails Over Europe. Napalm Records released a limited (only 1,000 copies made) tour CD for the occasion, featuring songs off the new Alestorm and Týr albums, and tracks off both of Heidevolk’s albums! So, how about the new album? Hah, I’d say it’s one notch up from the debut really! Obviously, Quartermaster Chris quite swiftly found plenty more inspiration in the Pirate theme to go with the band’s great music! And with the keyboard frequently played with a harmonium sound (the tone is rather classic organ in “To the End Of Our Days”, a rather slow and dark song), the Folk element is again held high! On top of it all, there’s Chris’ ruff vokals, yargh, yargh, and a thru’ pleasure ‘t is to listening to him! Getting the necessary backings, the songs get that sing-along touch (frequently with an uplifting air, occasionally of the darker kind) we already knew from the debut! If you hadn’t heard music by this Scottish band yet, all ye need to do is surf on over to myspace.com/alestorm, whence ye’ll not only find 4 of the now classic songs off the debut album, but also two great tracks off the new one! As I’ve already mentioned that I like this album even more than the debut (it’s a bit more varied this time around, I guess), the rating is accordingly higher! By the way, the limited (digipak) edition of the album comes with a bonus DVD containing live footage from the band’s Wacken performance of last year! In case you’re interested: the band will be doin’ a new Euro Tour come next Autumn (passage through Belgium with Antwerpen’s Hof ter Loo as Port of Call on September 20). 89/100 Tony. |