Finally got around to listen through the album. It’s not terrible, but it’s not very good. The musicianship is top notch as far as Alestorm goes but they’re clearly taking the piss here. The lyrics are dumb even for their standards. Some bits are good, Shit Boat (No Fans) is very fun but mostly because it’s short and to the point, Chomp Chomp has a cool riff, and Henry Martin is a neat cover. Then some songs are just pure nonsense, like Tortuga and the drivel that is Pirate Metal Drinking Crew, and others have a melodramatic approach that I don’t think suits them, like in Zombies Ate My Pirate Ship and Call Of The Waves, and it’s an approach I don’t think I’ve been particularly fond of before too. I mean, stuff like Magnetic North and Sunset On The Golden Age employed melodrama but it worked so much better there.
But the album does have one ace up its sleeve, and that’s the eight minute epic that seems to sail in from out of nowhere — Wooden Leg Pt. 2 (The Woodening). Is it ridiculous? Of course it is. Is it great? Hell yes. It opens with tinges of thrash and black metal and then launches into a direct sequel to their classic two minute rocker Wooden Leg. It takes aspects from 1741 and Sunset, from the same album, and incorporates them in, which is quite nice, and then really expands upon the silly story they created on that album. This time the narrator is off to seek revenge, but his curse lives on. First the take the original chorus and stretch it out, and then at the end they utilize the o.g. but flip it on its head (pun intended). The one song on here I will definitely be coming back to. The rest... eh, we’ll see. Could grow, but I doubt it. They really tried to be overly silly here in the wake of the popular Fucked With An Anchor, but they just couldn’t recapture the magic. Too bad.