Alestorm – Back Through Time (2011)
1. “Back Through Time” 5:03
2. “Shipwrecked” 3:31
3. “The Sunk’n Norwegian” 4:07
4. “Midget Saw” 3:18
5. “Buckfast Powersmash” 2:33
6. “Scraping the Barrel” 4:40
7. “Rum” 3:29
8. “Swashbuckled” 3:53
9. “Rumpelkombo” 0:06
10. “Barrett’s Privateers” 4:41
11. “Death Throes of the Terrorsquid” 7:46
12. “I Am a Cider Drinker” 2:58
13. “You Are a Pirate” 1:33
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Why is this band not playing in front of 50,000 screaming Metallers every week? They sing about being a pirate and getting drunk; swashbuckling tales of voyages across the seas in search of shiny metal pieces and the mistreatment of women in decadent ports across the globe. How much more Metal can you get than that? Throw in epic and heavy guitar riffs and you have yourself a recipe for Metal worship that would put the embarrassing veneration of the Big Four to shame. But for some reason, inexplicable and shocking for this vast Metal mind to fathom, Alestorm have been passed off as a ‘silly fad‘ in respectable music journals without explaining the reasoning to such a monumental conclusion. Some have even missed the irony of certain lines in ‘Scraping The Barrel’ the drool somehow defying physics and drowning their ear drums. “No more tales to be told” there may be indeed, but the true irony here is if it was not for internet piracy then their treasure chests would be brimming with more gold than they have currently plundered. Explain that one – with weighty examples of relative importance and logic, fellow journos.
This is the Scottish Pirate-Metaller’s third official release, and obviously follows the Pirate theme of the previous two albums but the refreshing change about this release is that there is no change. This is a band that are unapologetic for their style of music and direction and do not need the approbation of critics to justify their artistic endeavours. Forcing artistic and intellectual evolution in the hope of gaining new fans is all well and good but is not always necessary. Metal is saturated with this philosophy and that is why it is refreshing to listen to albums that are technically proficient, structured well and brimming with good songs. Alestorm have mastered this approach and, despite obvious criticism to the contrary, each album is actually different to the last. Not because of some desperate need to be seen to evolve for commercial ends but through writing decent tunes that are also catchy.
At times anthemic, Back Through Time, will have beer-swilling lovers of talking like a pirate, Somali Seafaring Freedom Fighters and parrots singing along to tracks such as “Shipwrecked”, “The Sunk’n Norwegian” and the sailor’s motto “Rum” to the annoyance of Emo’s and deadly serious Black Metal fans (or just, Black Metal fans; I think the ‘deadly serious’ is superfluous) the world over plus there is the added benefit of surrealist comedy in the guise of “Midget Saw” and homage to England’s finest apéritif, Buckfast, The Queen’s subtle and final assault on the psyche of Scotland’s legendarily ginger inhabitants.
“Scraping The Barrel” has already been mentioned but this is not the only track that would be easily misunderstood. “Death Throes Of The Terrorsquid” has a surprising, but certainly not unwelcome, Black Metal interlude crafted beautifully enough that, should one not have heard anything of this band before, one would be suitable impressed, especially with lyrics like, “Between the bounds of light and death… Rides the serpent… Uroboros… Supine before the altar of doom… Enter into the Cthonic lair…” Take that, Burzum. Maybe the lack of artwork that looks like it has been drawn with permanent marker on toilet paper or because it does not sound like it has been recorded in a tin can in the frozen tundra of Norway by scratching the surface of CD’s with rusty knives or their relative lack of pointy bracelets and goth makeup has perhaps elevated them to the status of anathema (shudder no more talk of that band) to Northern Europe’s angry goths. Perhaps the reason is Metal itself to fail to recognise quality outside of its own rigid constraints.
But now our Captain has called for our moorings to be cut and the open sea awaits. The glory of decent and unpretentious Metal needs to be brought to the world. Also wenches need to be satisfied.
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