Having left a suitable amount of time since it's release in June this year, I thought it was about time I wrote down my thoughts on album number seven from duck loving, pirate metal drunkards Alestorm.
I'm sure everyone has picked up on the Iron Maiden reference and maybe the haters have rolled their eyes before even listening to it but I'm sure others appreciate the tribute. Not only is a nod to the British metal legends and the naming of their seventh album but can I just say again that this is album number seven... from a band that amazed everyone (even themselves) when they had enough material to get to album three!! My reason for leaving several months before writing my review was not intentional. I wanted to and tried really hard to write it up after it's release but was so disheartened by other reviews that ripped it apart I was actually kind of scared I would be bullied for liking it. I'm over that now though and I think it's about time we had an opinion that isn't slagging it off because it's the "cool" thing to do. Alestorm have had a lot of bad press this last year or so, and yes it has been mostly of their own doing but I am not here to judge them as individuals or to be their friend. I am here to drink their beer... wait, what? No sorry, I am here to judge them as musicians.
In terms of new content Seventh Rum Of A Seventh Rum is a bit of a mixed bag and maybe (going by a couple of songs), just maybe they are beginning to scrape the bottom of the barrel here but it is still done with the same rambunctious enthusiasm that we have come to know and love from Alestorm. The four singles from the album "Magellan's Expedition", "P.A.R.T.Y", "The Battle Of Cape Fear River" and "Seventh Rum Of A Seventh Rum" are a great showcase of the album as a whole. This time the singles were a little different to the party tunes released from 2020's Curse Of The Crystal Coconut. "Magellan's Expedition" was first up and a throw back to the piratical quest worthy material reminiscent of Back Through Time or Captain Morgan's Revenge. It's a great song for those of us missing the anthemic side of Alestorm. Leaving the laughs for the second single "P.A.R.T.Y" which is fun, stupid and annoyingly catchy. It's not a patch on the awesome "Treasure Chest Party Quest" from Curse Of The Crystal Coconut but you can't blame them for trying. "The Battle Of Cape Fear River" is one of my favourite tracks, it's heavy, shouty and big on the piratey stuff. I love the tracks with Chris and Elliots vocals on them. The title track and final single "Seventh Rum Of A Seventh Rum" is in a similar vein to the first single but smarter and incorporates some tricky time signatures. It has become a trend with Alestorm to have at least one really immature and pointlessly offensive singalong tune on every album. This escalated tenfold with 2017's No Grave But The Sea's "Fucked With An Anchor" which is eagerly anticipated at every live show but I feel that with "Cannonball" they have possibly trumped their own fuckery. "Cannonball" incorporates the electro/dancey feel of "Tortuga" (Curse Of The Crystal Coconut), "Mexico" (No Grave But The Sea) and even their cover of Taio Cruz's "Hangover" (Sunset On The Golden Age) with their signature bouncy, chuggy verses, absolutely hilarious vulgarity sung with so much venom and some of Elliots best guttural screaming. It also contains one of my favourite lines of the year "I'm gonna kill you back to life and torture you again" and then there's the chorus of course! Being as multi-cultural as they are they have dedicated a song to the home land of guitarist Mate Bodor with "Magyarorzag" in honour of his Hungarian roots and an accolade to Brazil. A couple of tracks that do let the album down a bit for me are the thrice revisited "Wooden Leg" and the song we knew we never needed, "Return To Tortuga". They seem like little more then fillers for an otherwise fun and lively album. These tracks made me worry a little especially after the early slatings the album got. This does kind of make you think the bands enthusiasm was lacking and the theme itself waning a bit but I'm hoping these songs were just a glitch and they ran out of time or something. The rest of the album is as on point as their other releases.
Seventh Rum Of A Seventh Rum was met with some scathing reviews by people who obviously have no sense of humour whatsoever but I hope that now it's been out for a while more people have got off the hate train and realised that it is what it is, and what it is is bloody good piratey fun and nothing else. Alestorm are pure escapism and so much fun live. They have shown that a band fronted by a guy with a keytar, a keyboard player that sometimes plays the violin and a guitarist that wears hotpants can bang on about pirates, quests and alcohol for the grand total of seven albums and not give a flying flintlock what you think of them. I would be willing to bet that they will not stop here either... raise your hooks if you cant wait for number eight!!
