Posts Tagged ‘Scottish Pirate Metal’

Alestorm – Back Through Time

Monday, May 30th, 2011

Alestorm - Back Through Time

Genre: Scottish Pirate Metal
Label: Napalm Records

Ah, Scotland. The home of golf, haggis, bagpipes, and the kilt. And high seas piracy?
Sing-along choruses and Scottish instruments fill these riff and hook soaked songs of whiskey, rum, the ocean, squids, and whores. Don’t forget the whores. Elements of punk, thrash, and folk metal all come together to form this voyage, and in all it’s a pretty epic tale indeed.
Favorite tracks are “Buckfast Powersmash”, “Scraping the Barrel”, and the album closer (and longest track) “Death Throes of the Terrorsquid”.
7 out of 10.

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Alestorm – Back Through Time

Monday, May 9th, 2011

Genre: Scottish Pirate Metal

Label: Napalm Records

Oooooooh yeah! I’ve been waiting for this album to be released since I was finished listening to Black Sails At Midnight the first time I listed to it! Will these Scottish Pirate Metal maestros live up to my expectations, or will I find myself disappointed and sinking beneath the waves, down twenty fathoms into the briney deep?

Well, it’s probably not a good sign that I feel like I’ve been here before. Not just because of the timely pirate theme,but because I hear snippets of their older material. I don’t know if it’s just me, lazy song writing, a limit set by the restricting Scottish Pirate Metal genre or a mixture of all three.

However, I will give them credit for their song, Scrapping The Barrel in which they call out their critics, pretty much say that they don’t give a fuck if we like their lyrics or not (a similar critical response was said about Battlelore and I fucking LOVE that group!). They even go as far as to remind you that Running Wild did it first! The balls on these guys must be fucking huge! And something else should be said about the You Suffer or maybe more accurately, Anti-Procrastination Song-ish Rumpelkombo. Oh, such fun!

Also, the fuck-fucking maniacal black metal session in Death Throes Of The Terrorsquid was a curve ball I would love to have thrown at me more often! Shit, that was intense!

Overall: Aside from an almost complete lack of progression and a bit of shameless rehashing from older albums, Back Through Time is a wholly enjoyable album that’s full of “yar’s”, “matey’s” and “rums” that flips a gigantic bird to the Nords in the first track! Take from that what you will…

8.5/10

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