Alestorm, Curse of the Crystal Coconut: Album Review!

Scottish pirate Metal band Alestorm released their much anticipated sixth studio album, Curse of the Crystal Coconut, back in May. Potentially a risky move during the current state of the world and Britain at the time still being in the midst of a lockdown, it has proven to be widely popular and praised among their fan base. While I would call myself a fan of the band, I have never actually ever listened to an album all the way through, just the odd singles here and there, so I'm excited to see if they are consistently good through an entire album!

Starting off massively strong out the gate with possibly my favourite song of the year so far (which is saying a lot!), Treasure Chest Party Quest. Everything about this song rules. The music itself is fast, it's heavy, it's upbeat, and played so damn well. Everything from the guitars to the drums to the strings sound completely on point. Then there’s the completely ridiculous yet perfect lyrics. It's easily one of the catchiest chorus' I've ever heard, and it’s been an earworm since the moment I first heard it as a single. Everyone loves a good party song and Alestorm do it better than most. These guys deserve to be so much bigger than they currently are.

Next is a song somehow even more childish than its predecessor, the third single from the album, Fannybaws. Spinning the tale of a pirate known by the song’s namesake, it is still very catchy, if not quite as much as the album’s opener. Some more great pirate sounding riffs from the keyboards that wouldn’t sound out of place in a Pirates movie, but even the title begs you not to take it seriously. Between that and the album's next track, the clear homage to the crocodile from Peter Pan, Chomp Chomp, this is definitely a silly album, and I love it!

Next up is the second single off the album and quite frankly a song that took me completely by surprise, Tortuga. Between the horn sounds, the electronic samples and a guest rapper, this came out of nowhere and sounds nothing else like anything I've heard the band do before. Heck, the mere arrangement of the song is more that of an electro-pop song over a metal one. Having said this, though, it works so well, I love it! The chorus is again catchy as hell and it still remains pretty heavy despite the samples and horns, another huge highlight of this album.

Zombies Ate my Pirate Ship is up next. While this is still an enjoyable song, it is maybe the least enjoyable for me so far. While there was nothing inherently wrong with it, the chorus was a little weaker than the other songs. However, that was offset a little by the awesome intro instrumental and the guest female singing over the strings towards the middle of the song, both sounded beautiful! There was also a great guitar solo in this, and some more awesome horn parts.

Call of the Waves feels slightly more serious than the other songs on the album. There aren’t too many silly lyrics here, just someone singing about wanting to be out at sea. It's fast and heavy and, with everything going on in it, has a real epic feel to it, almost like a modern-day Iron Maiden song. That, and the sweep picked solo is awesome. Another great song!

Pirate's Scorn starts out sounding like it'll be massively heavy before suddenly dropping into one of the most piraty things I've ever heard. More crazy lyrics but at this point they're not silly, they're just Alestorm. All lyrics feel piraty at this point, and I'm only just over halfway through the album. Great joint keyboard and guitar solo in the middle and another catchy chorus, some great stuff.

Shit Boat (No Fans) proves that just because lyrics can be childish doesn’t mean they are not great. This short, profanity laden track is yet another highlight of this album for me. The strange posh voice that sings on its own midway through sounds ridiculous, somehow even more so than the whole band singing similar lyrics. Absurd, nonsensical and fantastic.

Pirate Metal Drinking Crew has a great intro with a simple, heavy riff and some great drumming. It then goes into more piraty awesomeness. It does have a similar feel to a fair few of the other songs on this album, making it feel a little worse due to diminishing returns. It almost feels like an attempt to replicate the opening track, but not quite as well. I have to say though, the sample dog bark sound kills me!

Wooden Leg Part 2 was an interesting one for me as I was not familiar with the original before listening to this. I wasn’t expecting anything like this, though. An eight minute epic following a no legged pirate’s quest to steal the man who de-legged him's own limbs. And yes, that is just as silly as it sounds. But sonically this song is incredible, and the lyrics somehow pack a surprising amount of emotion into their ridiculous subject matter. The chorus lacks a little, for me, but in a song as intricate and huge as this, it's a minor gripe really.

The final song, Henry Martin, took me a little off guard, too. A ballad to close out an album is always a bold choice, but I think it just about works here. It’s the most old timey, pirate-sounding song on the album, the vocal line following the accordion-sounding-keyboard in this slow, heavy closer. There isn’t too much to say about it though, it follows a similar formula and chord progression throughout, leaving a little to be desired, though that could have just been due to its placement at the end of the album. A good song, if not particularly a great Alestorm song.

Overall, I really loved this album. It had a lot of very strong stuff on it, far outweighing the odd slightly worse part. And, as I stated before, it contains my favourite song of the year so far on it, so I cannot not love this album! It's already made me download their older albums to listen through to them properly, and I think they definitely have a big fan in me going forwards!

Overall: 8/10.