Everyone loves Folk Metal don't they?
For some reason the mix of skippy, fey folk rhythms, heavy metal guitars and ye olde world lyrics have made ideal bedfellows. The music and atmosphere just seem to come together perfectly and have unleashed a new generation of bands onto the music scene.
Just like any other genre, many bands have been placed under its banner despite differing sounds and attitudes. Folk Metal can range from ultimate good time party music like
Korpiklaani to epic tales of historical adventure from
Turisas via skulking in the forest and killing Christians (Finntroll) and even 80's pop metal in disguise in the form of Elvenking's early output.
Obviously the addition of folk to metal and indeed to rock music in general is nothing new and has been going on for quite some time. The past few years however has seen an explosion in the mainstream metal press (and therefore the mainstream metal consumers) interest in the genre. It has become a major money spinner for the record labels and as everybody knows, the laws of supply and demand dictate that the public wants what the public gets. This is where
Alestorm come in.
Forming in Perth, Scotland in 2004 under their original name of Battleheart, the band hit upon the idea of furthering the relatively untapped Pirate Metal genre and thereby helping themselves stand out from the rest of the crowd. They release two self recorded demos and played only a handful of gigs before being snapped up by Napalm Records in August 2007.
This lead to the record company insisting they change their name as they already had their quota of bands who's names start with "Battle" filled by
Battlelore and didn't need the confusion that might arise (do they really think metal fans are that thick?). The newly christened
Alestorm were then spirited away to Germany to record their major label debut. This was done with the aid of a session drummer as their unfortunate drummer Ian Wilson couldn't make it over to Germany in time for the scheduled recording.
It's easy to be overly cynical about this album given the record labels obvious rush to get this out on the shelves (or onto Itunes for those who are truly living in the digital age) before the whole fuss over this sort of thing died down. Things aren't really helped when you find out that their brand of "Scottish Pirate Metal" basically just a folky take on power metal complete with Freedom Call's "heroic" keyboard sound and some ridiculously hokey "Yaaarrr me Hearties" vocals.
The resulting LP could easily have amounted to little more that a marketing man's wet dream with no little or no redeeming musical qualities. Luckily for
Alestorm, they went to Germany armed with a few songs that go some way to justify the hype surrounding the band.
The album starts off with one of its strongest songs
Over The Seas. From the off its triumphant (pirate) hook grabs your attention as the lyrics spin a yarn of adventure on the high seas in search of gold and other assorted treasure. As you can expect this is a theme that is visited several times on the album with sadly diminishing returns. This song is well written and bears all the hallmarks of the bands sound with a strong sing-along chorus and choppy guitar rhythms. It also features a rather fine guitar/keyboard solo courtesy of guitarist Gavin Harper and keyboard/vocalist Christopher Bowes.
The next song
Captain Morgan's Revenge follows the same formula as the opener but with an even more epic feel. This song was newly written for the album and you can tell as its song writing scope is much more adventurous than other, older songs on offer here. One negative about the song is that it has all the feel of a grand closing track yet resides second on the album. Why on earth it's sitting there when the album ends so tamely (more on that later) is anybody's guess.
Without doubt the most evocative song on record has to be
Nancy The Tavern Wench. This is pretty much exactly what I imagined when I heard of the band. It's a mid-paced track which conjures images of a smoky, crowded alehouse off the coast of Jamaica filled with all sorts of dangerous, vile people who are gathered together enjoying a pint of ale on their brief refuge from the seas while joining their voices with an accordion player to sing the praises of their busty hostess. Vocalist Christopher Bowles occasionally dodgy pirate impression really works well on this one and I feel urged to sing along with my imagined crew of salty sea-dogs.
Having said that, one of the main problems with this album is the lack of variation of subject matter. By electing to sing about pirates the band has managed to back themselves (no doubt cutlass in hand) into a corner. Of the nine original songs on offer, seven deal with sailing the seas being all piratical in search of treasure and the like, while the remaining two deal with the pleasures of the flesh and the flagon while on land. This is initially amusing but wears a little thin on occasion with some truly abysmal lines e.g.
"A reign of terror on the seas
We'll bring these poseurs to their knees" Now I can see what they are trying to do here but attempting to mix Manowar-lite playground politics into a song about pirates just comes off as a seriously desperate move to inject a little variety.
Another issue with the album is its rushed feel. Songs like
Death Before the Mast and
Of Treasure display a lack of polish. The former doesn't seem as fully realised as the other, more developed songs on the album while that latter's a brief attempt at a traditional sea shanty who's vocals melody seems to want to go faster that the music will allow. It's worrying when an album that contains so few songs in the first place includes a couple of tracks that could easily be classed as filler.
Its not all bad news though as the album has one more excellent song in store before the end.
Wenches & Mead is a jaunty romp proclaiming the joys of; yes you've guessed it women and beer! It's a fun little number and is reminiscent of the
Korpiklaani songs Beer Beer and Happy Little Boozer. With a tempo that's sure to have the fans bouncing all the way to the bar and back at gig venues up and down the country.
Nowhere is the record company pressure for the urgency of this release more apparent that on the final track, a cover of Scotland's unofficial national anthem
Flower of Scotland. For anyone who doesn't know, this song is about the spanking delivered to the English by Robert the Bruce at the battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Being Scottish myself and having sung this at plenty of football matches I fully expected
Alestorm's rendition to give me serious Goosebumps. Alas my flesh was unmoved when I discovered that their take was a stale, anodyne rendition with frankly rubbish and annoying gang vocals. A missed opportunity and a complete anti climax to an album full of over the top bombast.
Captain Morgan's Revenge is a difficult release to rate. On one hand it's got some great fun songs that don't take themselves seriously and present a different take on the crowded folk metal scene. On the other it's a victim of its own ideals with all the good ideas being spread over too few songs. I believe that given time
Alestorm can put together an excellent follow up to this promising debut. But they need to be allowed the time and space to fully develop their craft.
Written by
Stuart Tuesday, February 5, 2008
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