EP Review: Alestorm - "Voyage of the Dead Marauder"

It is the pinnacle of satire when the artist performing it composes a piece of art that surpasses the original genre being parodied.  The most famous recent example of this is Joss Whedon’s “Cabin in the Woods,” where the movie not only successfully poked fun at all the tropes of the slasher film genre, but was simultaneously the best slasher film to be released in years.

Through this lens is how one could view “Voyage of the Dead Marauder,” the lead single on the new EP of the same name from Alestorm, the forever vitriolic and acerbic pirate metal band from Scotland. 

Intentionally or accidentally, Alestorm has always existed at something of cross purposes to power metal – always the kids at the back of the classroom, wearing sunglasses and napping during the lecture, and interpreting the lessons in their own idiomatic fashion, to the delight of their classmates but the stern disapproval of their teacher.  

And yet, here comes this title track, backed by the sanguine vocals of Patty Gurdy, and it might well be the best power metal song written by anyone not named Powerwolf in the past five years!  It hits all the right hallmarks – the soaring chorus, the singalong vocals, the powerful and melodic riffs that harmonize with the accessible rhythm underneath.  It all coalesces into Alestorm showing everyone how its done after years of thumbing their nose at the surrounding crowd. As a side note, Patty Gurdy was the best possible choice for the accompanying vocals.  If it had been Floor Jansen, or Simone Simons or whomever else, it would have been too much.  Gurdy’s voice is natural and believable, more apt for this kind of swaggering tavern shanty than the other singers’ inherent pitch perfection.

That’s not all the EP has to offer, though.  We careen into consecutive songs about Uzbekistan and pirates from Saskatchewan, both of which are enjoyable successes.  Alestorm’s chosen musical style only leaves them a certain number of avenues they can take without plunging into repetition, so the songs have to exist as functions of their themes and lyrics.  To that end, Alestorm makes this EP work by crafting fun and goofy tunes about unusual corners of the world, different than the ones they’ve written before.

And then, “Cock,” keeping alive the tradition of Alestorm writing one deplorable, gleefully and hilariously vulgar song per recording.  This does not disappoint.

At the inception of their career, Alestorm was too frenetic, too frothing and wild-eyed to really capitalize on their potential.  The intervening fifteen-plus years have seen the band mature nicely into their talent and become real storytellers while still balancing against the natural fun and lunacy of their music.  “Voyage of the Dead Marauder,” is, to this point, the apex of this combination.