2007-03-18
Had pirates lived today and made metal music, what would they sound like? Well, in Europe they would probably sound like power metal, as Germany's
Running Wild do, and in the colonies? Well, American band Swashbuckle proclaims pirate music for themselves as a combination of old school thrash with some melodic elements and vocals that come on thick and heavy, a-la
Mastodon.
This isn’t some polished melodic effort, from the opener "Welcome Aboard" these guys board the ship with swords raised, fast and brutal, vocals closer to a death growl with the guitars bringing in some needed melody. The lyrics? You can guess it yourselves, a lot of planks, matees and hooks, good the thing the guitars feature some great hooks as well, such as the melodic ones in "Drink Up".
The band throws in some great middle-ages tinged acoustic numbers such as "Set Sail", a motif which is used several times here, before kicking your head in again with "Walk The Plank". Extra markers for the sound by the way, it's not overly produced, but still comes off as clear enough.
Thrash takes a backseat in such tracks as "Dead Men Tell No Tales", which comes off more as a melodic death metal number, with heavier death growling as well, this band pulls that off as well. Extra markers for "X" Marks The Spot" as well, with some more heavy death touches.
I'm quite certain the whole pirate thing would be the main selling point for these guys, it's obviously a unique feature to separate them from a bundle of like-minded metal bands, but they work great as a band even without that; the album sound good, contains some very solid musicianship and certainly is a lot of fun. These guys should not walk the plank anytime soon.
Alon Miasnikov
