Scotland's Alestorm have been doing the "Pirate Metal" thing for 10 years now, somehow managing to remain fresh within a seemingly constrictive shtick through four full-length albums. Album #5, No Grave but the Sea, finds these buccaneers running their ship aground, hard. There is absolutely nothing here they haven't trotted out before (multiple times) and even the more traditional Power Metal anthems like "No Grave but the Sea" and "To the End of the World" sound formulaic and forced. There's nothing as clever as "Back Through Time", as self-deprecating as "Scraping the Barrel" or creative as "1741 (The Battle of Cartagena)". Nope, just Christopher Bowes and crew singing about pirating, drinking, sailing and drinking with faux folk instrumentation and shanty-inspired melodies like we've heard them do dozens of times before. And don't get me started on "Fucked with an Anchor," a ridiculous excuse to curse for no apparent reason. Go back to Sunset on the Golden Age or Back Through Time if you want some decent Alestorm, don't waste your time with No Grave but the Sea.
