Alestorm – Sunset on the golden age

,SunsetIt’s been three years since those drunken pirate metallers at Alestorm last gave us a new studio album (Back through time), but happily they sobered up long enough to write and record a new album – Sunset on the golden age.  Ok to be fair to them they have released a live album/DVD in that time as well as a single (their cover of the Village People hit “In the Navy”), and Chris Bowes has also released an album with his other band, Gloryhammer, but still, three years is still too long to have to wait for more Alestorm songs.

So what’s the album like?  Well the first song to be released is “Drink” – watch the video above and see what you think.  It’s Alestorm doing what they do best – singing about drinking in a song with a good catchy chorus.

1741 (The battle of Cartagena) is a great song, and is surprisingly long – over 7 minutes, so longer than most Alestorm tracks (it’s one of their longest to date), but is still shorter than the title track, “Sunset on the golden age” which is over 11 minutes long.

It wouldn’t be Alestorm without a dose of insanity, so to that end we have “Surf squid warfare”.

“Wooden leg” is a fast track, with more of a shouted chorus rather than sung.

The most surprising song on the album is “Hangover”.  It’s a cover version, but I’m guessing most people reading this review won’t be familiar with the original.  So who did the original?  Well after previous cover versions that have included a song from the Eurovision song contest, and a Village people cover, this time they’ve chosen to cover Taio Cruz.  If that name doesnt ring a bell then you might want to check out the original on youtube – then again I suspect you won’t listen to the whole thing as to me it sums up everything I dislike about chart music.  So it’s a pretty odd choice to cover other than the fact it’s about a hangover – so in that respect it’s perfect for Alestorm.  I really wasn’t optimistic about the song before I listened to the album, but I have to say, Chris Bowes has worked a miracle – he’s actually made the song sound great.  Even the rap section of the song works really well in the alestorm version

The album doesn’t offer any shocks in terms of what the band sings about – Alcohol, Quests, more alcohol, and some pirate themes.  Then again it wouldn’t be Alestorm if they started singing about anything else.  It’s more alcohol fuelled pirate metal fun – and it’s a great album that is definitely recommended.

Track listing:

1. Walk the plank
2. Drink
3. magnetic North
4. 1741 (The battle of Cartagena)
5. Mead from hell
6. Surf squid warfare
7. Quest for ships
8. Wooden leg
9. Hangover
10. Sunset on the golden age