Alestorm – Back Through Time

The phenomenon of so called “Pirate” metal has definitely entered the metalhead’s life. Alestorm participate to big festivals, the crowd seems to be cheerful with their music and join at a great party in their shows. The Scottish pirates are certainly the band for live shows. They have collaborated with big names of folk metal such as Tyr and Heidevolk, so their shares have risen. Recently Alestorm released their third full-length album named “Back Through Time” and it seems to have great commercial success. But is the commercial success the most important thing in music?

If someone likes the two former albums, he will like “Back Through Times” too. The album hasn’t any differences with “Captains Morgan’s Revenge” or “Black sails at Midnight”. It’s just the same Power metal with folk influences as the other. But, here you will find only catchy songs proper for parties. You will have fun, you will enjoy the songs, you will want to drink a whole barrel of rum or beer. They haven’t the epic songs with the complex music as they had before and you won’t find any evolution at their songs. It’s just a medium rate album with the usual lyrical theme and the Scottish band seems to repeat themselves and they don’t try any experiments in their music.

I don’t say that I don’t like the album. The tracks are quite amusing. With “Rum”, “The Sunk’n Norwegian” and “Midget Show” you can have great time when you sing along the lyrics with your friend, with a beer in your hand. The music is pretty close to the music of “Black sails at Midnight”, so I don’t have to analyze them. They’re clearly songs for circle pits and booze. On the other hand the album has “Shipwrecked”, “Buckfast Powersmash” and “Swashbuckeld”. These are the most heavy songs of “Back Through Time” The riffs are “thrashy” and with the melody of keyboards and the vocals of Christopher Bowes the result is epic as hell, especially at “Shipwrecked” which is my favourite track of the album.

The whole album follows a specific form of music, except from the opening song “Back Through Time” which have also heavy guitar riffs. A massive song, with pirate atmosphere and sounds a bit classic power metal, especially at the solo part. “Scrapping the Barrel ” is a very slow song with intense folkloric influences of pirate music. Another song, quite boring I would say, is “Death Throes to the Terrorsquid”. Ok it has very good guitars, melody and atmosphere but the long duration of the song makes it boring. Finally the cover songs are in the “party songs” category and I don’t think that I must mention them.

Τhe mix is very good and the album has very good sound too. The pirates seems to stand firmly at the background of their previous albums. But the bad points are the “funny” lyrics about pirates hunting vikings and the lack of creativity. Although it’s a good album, it doesn’t deserve very high rating. Alestorm plays joyful party music, so get drunk and enjoy the album!