ALESTORM

Release Year: 2022
Artist Origin: SCO
Style: loud folk pirate heavy metal

with live performances brought to a halt for reasons beyond their control, Scottish madmen refused to lose good spirits, choosing to playfully rework the title of one of heavy metal's most iconic albums for their seventh full-length, yet its contents prove unexpectedly more serious, opening with two epic compositions packed with symphonic arrangements and technically accomplished guitar lines, conjuring almost classic heavy metal sense of grandeur - nevertheless, familiar atmosphere soon returns with rowdy yet equally memorable party anthems and crowd-rousing choruses; the pandemic provided more opportunities for songwriting and, seemingly, encouraged guys to explore their musical abilities more extensively without abandoning essential identity - Alestorm continue to strike a balance between ambition, self-irony, and carefree pirate mayhem, although this time round their repertoire makes more room for epic grandeur, deeper arrangements, and somewhat more serious aspirations; limited Austrian hardcover digibook double disc edition comes with acoustic versions of every album track on second CD, and this time it is not a joke!