The pirates of Scotland (and Ireland and Hungary and wherever else) are back. Alestorm, Power/Folk Metal masters are back for their 5 th album “No Grave But the Sea” and man, if you’re a fan of the album then are you in for a treat.
The album kicks off at full speed with “No Grave But the Sea”, the title track sets the standard right off the bat with full epic sounding orchestration mixed in with the Folk/Power Metal style Alestorm are known for. The chorus is full of gang vocals that will easily get any crowd singing along, much like many other songs on this album. Another one of them being the lighthearted, feel good track “Mexico”. Have you ever wondered why people love going to Mexico for holidays? Well, Alestorm spell it out pretty quickly mentioning that “the alcohol is free” twice before you’ve even reached the first chorus.
“No Grave But the Sea” takes things one step further than any past release has. The last Alestorm album “Sunset on the Golden Age” saw the introduction of Elliot Vernon, the band’s new keyboard player who also supplies some harsh vocals for the band, this album sees Vernon take centre stage during some songs to belt out some ferocious vocals. One of the main ones being the band’s first single “Alestorm”, which pretty much spells out for you the meaning behind the band’s name. This album is also the first with new guitarist Màtè Bodor aka The Actual Human Bobo, while Alestorm have never exactly been known for guitar solos, Bodor might be the reason that changes. “Bar ins Imbiss” is a song about, here’s a shocker, pirates and drinking, but the song also features a few separate guitar solos that aren’t just there as a sense to “show off” you can hear the passion and emotion in them and I makes them stand out that much more.
Now for the song I figured would be full of Vernon's harsh vocals, but instead it’s a lighthearted, upbeat and all around fun song, “Fucked With an Anchor”. The song is very simplistic in sound, imagine sitting around a campfire thinking of 4 letter swear words and making a song out of them, simple right? The song is full of gang vocals, upbeat riffs and curses that stunt your vocabulary to nothing but swear words.
Beginning to end “No Grave But the Sea” is a I’ve step for Alestorm. Bowes takes a step back and everyone has equal spotlight from solos to vocals. If you were a fan of the band’s last putting “Sunset on the Golden Age”, then this new album will be right up your alley, sounding like a perfected version of “Sunset…”.
Also, for some insight into the album by the Captain himself, click here to listen to our interview with Chris Bowes
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