Source: Matt Higgs
Metal as a whole is looked upon as a pretty serious genre of music. A cult of burly folk who bellow for the slaughter of lambs and church burning; right proper murder death kill music to the eyes and ears of your average chart slurping bag of piss. However, metal is more than capable of a beer-drenched laugh and straying away from its stereotypical selfhood. Take Alestorm for example; a ragtag bag of highland pirates, game for a laugh alongside a giant inflatable duck, and fellow privateers Rumahoy and The Dread Crew Of Oddwood. Strap in scurvy dogs.
Our opening act was the previously mentioned Dread Crew, (We’ll keep it to Oddwood for short mmkay). When you hear about a tour called Piratefest 2018, these guys are exactly what you would expect to stagger upon. Full pirate attire, gristly vocals and enough string and woodwind weaponry to sink an aircraft carrier. Touring in support of their newest record Lawful Evil, Oddwood brought along a chest full of talent based booty. Come on, they had both accordion and double bass shredding, you don’t see Captain Jack doing that on this days off do you? Sailing through a setlist of swashbuckling supremacy, Oddwood’s charm increased tenfold. With jig fuelling jingles like ‘Trollwhack’ and ‘Heavy Mahogany’ still remaining as toe tappers to this day. We hope you set sail soon again chaps; we had such a good time with you.
Source: Matt Higgs
Rumahoy were up next and from a visual perspective, we weren’t exactly greeted with Disney’s idea of pirates. The balaclava-clad beat bandits definitely had a different aesthetic to the evening’s previous act, however that didn’t mean they lacked any enthusiasm. Despite having a shorter set, Rumahoy played with immediate ferocity, making themselves known with opening anthem ‘Ahoy!’ and stopping off midway for a canoodling session of ‘Netflix and Yarr’. With each song being a tale of rum and general pirate-ness, Captain Yarrface and his merry mates were a fitting addition to Piratefest and successfully fuelled the maelstrom masses ready for the Storm of Ale.
Ten years be passed since Alestorm’s debut Captain Morgan’s Revenge felt it’s first spray of the seas, and the Scottish scoundrels are still on the run from Davy Jones’s Locker. With their latest release No Grave But The Sea still being under a year old, Yorkshire’s finest were treated to a solid blend of new and old sea shanties alike: ‘Alestorm’, ‘Mexico’ and ‘Keelhauled’ just to name a few. Alestorm have gone through some questionable re-skinning over the years, introducing themes of Fray Bentos pies and banana ducks along the way. Honestly, though, we couldn’t give a shit, it’s all good fun and their music lives up to the lols. The epic nautical anthems are still there, with ‘That Famous Ol’ Spiced’ and ‘Captain Morgan’s Revenge’ being two of the night’s most mighty musical musings. Fuck anyone who looks down on bands for having a ‘gimmick’. Wind your collective necks in and learn how to have a laugh. All in all then we had a solid night of laughs, beers, yarrs and BEERS. Having made a ‘Storm’ at last years Download Festival and the Piratefest tour being a huge success, we’re sure it won’t be long until we’re swabbing the beer-soaked decks with Alestorm again. PLUNDER WITH THUNDER BROTHERS.
