Who knew Scottish power/folk metal outfitters Alestorm, who’s music is not terribly serious but, No Grave But The Sea is a fun tale about drinking, pirates, adventures and everlasting quests to set sail and conquer the high seas! Like their previous installments, this particular album delivers shanty influences, metal riffage and epic pirate movie soundtrack elements with colorful Celtic folk and sea vibes. Production here is splendid and appropriately enough No Grave But The Sea features heroic choruses, catchy hooks and bold adventurous melodies to incorporate symphonic blasts, sparse power metal melodies and extravagance of decent actual riffing going on. Tracks such as Fucked With An Anchor, No Grave But The Sea, Treasure Island and Pegleg Potion use keyboard segments, magnificent acoustic leads, scattered solos, power chords, memorable sing-alongs and this album easily demonstrates Alestorm can do anything to make the music enjoyable and entertaining.
Onward to the secondary half of the album, all tracks contain authenticated instruments including the song Mexico uses a fanfare jolliest track about death by torture, usages of violins, accordions almost reminiscence of Korpiklaani bass line and little realism using Synth tones adding more commendable grounds. But safe to say No Grave But The Sea is traditional Alestorm at their best and if you previously liked 2014’s Napalm Records of Sunset On The Golden Age then you wouldn’t have any problems by all means to enjoy No Grave But The Sea. It’s a massive improvement that’ll make fans jolly around the poop deck under Captain Morgan’s crew and get drunk within the album’s hilariously cheesy lyricism and twas a decent time hearing this piece of music.
Overall Score: 8.5/10
Review by Jake Butler
