Along with Kreator, Obituary, Overkill and numerous other bands 2017 sees the release of ‘No Grave But the Sea’, the latest record from Scottish pirate metal titans Alestorm. With a total of four studio albums currently under their belt and it having been a good few years since their most recent album ‘Sunset on the Golden Age’ came out, how will the band’s newest release fare in terms of their general discography? It is time to find out.

The title track “No Grave But the Sea” kicks things off with an impressive start – a drum roll of sorts leading right into the familiar bark of vocalist Christopher Bowes backed up by vibrant sounding instrumentation which accompanies each other quite well. If you dig how Alestorm has sounded in the past, this opening track will certainly reassure you that the group’s traditional formula of pirate-tinged heavy metal with similar lyrical themes has not changed much.

The tracks that lead on at this point, namely “Mexico”, “To the End of the World”, and “Alestorm”, all take substantially different approaches to songwriting as well as the general musical arrangement. The almost video game sounding opening of “Mexico” is obviously at a contrast to tracks 3 and 4 on the album, as they rely more on what could be described as ‘normal instrumentation’, which is one way of putting it. For “Alestorm”, the band decided to name a song after themselves, and what came as a surprise to me in terms of this particular musical composition is the unusually heavy reliance on thrash and melodic death influences – something that the band definitely carried over from tracks on some of their previous albums. The vocal melody and the lyrics will also get under your skin; I can assure you of this.

“Bar und Imbiss”, in classic Alestorm style, tells the story of a fictional character who goes to a bar. Of course the comedic lyricism that has come to be associated with this band is still present, but I feel like this is the weakest track on the album so far, perhaps due to the fact that the mechanics that the band relied on in order to deliver their humorous nature have weakened over time. The guitar work in this song is definitely nifty, I must say.

“Fuck you, you’re a fucking wanker – we’re gonna punch you right in the balls” are the lyrics that open “Fucked With an Anchor” – perhaps the most undeniably ridiculous song that Alestorm has produced so far in their entire career. Listening to this while trying to keep a straight face is harder than you’d imagine, making me certain that this will become a highlight of the band’s live set if they choose to begin playing this song once the album has been released.

You would imagine that “Fucked With an Anchor” is the record’s musical (and lyrical) highlight – and it is to an extent – but “Pegleg Potion” quickens the pace of the instrumentation to a satisfactory standard. A genuinely enjoyable track backed up by Alestorm’s unique and original sound, and like with the song that came before it “Pegleg Potion” is one of the highlights on ‘No Grave But the Sea’.

At this point the album is beginning to wind down to an end with its final three songs: those specifically being “Man the Pumps”, “Rage of the Pentahook” and “Treasure Island”. The first of these three songs – “Man the Pumps” – is in my eyes what the pirate conquest of an enemy territory would sound like, an appropriate soundtrack to the kinds of musical vibes that Alestorm manages to express through their uniquely sounding compositions. “Rage of the Pentahook” and “Treasure Island” follows to end off ‘No Grave But the Sea’ with their varying song lengths – the former is just over 3 minutes and contains plenty of thrash metal influenced guitar work, whereas the latter spans the duration of nearly 8 minutes of traditional Alestorm fare, but in a much more fleshed out and expanded fashion of course.

To sum up, ‘No Grave But the Sea’ will definitely satisfy those that enjoyed Alestorm’s past work, while likely bringing newcomers into their fanbase. All of the band’s traditional musical mechanics are still present while they succeed in incorporating new techniques into their original sound. Like I said at the beginning of the review, 2017 is home to plenty of high-profile releases by big-name bands, but make sure you give this album a go. You should be impressed.