Review Swashbuckle - Back to the Noose 2009

Tracks:
1. Hoist the Mainsail
2. Scurvy Back
3. Back to the Noose
4. Cloudy With a Chance of Piracy
5. We Sunk Your Battleship
6. Rounds of Rum
7. Carnivale Boat Ride
8. Rime of the Haggard Mariner
9. Cruise Ship Terror
10. No Prey No Pay
11. La Leyenda
12. Splash-N-Thrash
13. The Grog Box
14. The Tradewinds
15. Attack
16. Peg-Leg Stomp
17. Whirlpit
18. All Seemed Fine Until
19. It Came From the Deep
20. Shipwrecked
21. Sharkbait

Band:
Admiral Nobeard - Vocals, Bass
Commodore RedRum - Guitar
Captain Crashride - Drums

Discography:
Crewed by the Damned (2006)

Released: 07/24/2009
Reviewed: 06/22/2009

Links:
swashbuckle.info
myspace
Bebo
YouTube
nuclear blast

Hoist the mainsail mateys! We are seeing a return of scurvy much due to the many rapier fights on the wooden ships in the heat of the Caribbean seas. Well, that is the illusion that this trio, or rather quartet if you count the parrot called “Shithead” as a member of the band. They are at least dressed as ye ol’ pirates and sing out lyrics with that very theme for the audiences who dare risk disease to hear the music of the pirates.

What also happened to this band is that they won the international Nuclear Blast Myspace competition or something like that, well they were one of the lucky winners. I don’t know anything about this competition but I guess congratulations are in order for these guys.

So how about these guys, what does this pirate rock’n’metal sound like? Well much like the fast ol’ thrash metal from the eighties but still with some melodic parts especially the small tracks in between the more regular tracks. They also incorporate some humour in the tracks that falls in between the other tracks, there’s also some humorous lyrics in the regular songs.

So with all this humour and pirate stuff, can it really be anything but good? Well, of course it can, it can always be better no matter what is released but is these pirates near the top or bottom. Well, I would say neither. The music just don’t quite appeal to me, the vocals are not good enough and at times I happen to loose interest. For the latter there is the tracks in between that makes this record worthwhile, but it is nothing more than just barely approved.

Still, if you like the faster thrashy music of the Bay Area in the eighties I think you can enjoy this one, especially if you can stand the in between tracks that are not in the same style but vary in between spoken word and acoustic pieces, maybe not at all for the thrash metal fan. But I guess the humour can make it bearable even for the thrash crowd it is what makes this record decent for me.

So in the end I find this record to be a record of potential but if we look back to the pirate theme we can see that there are much better music in that genre, just look at the very good Under Jolly Roger by Running Wild. That record is what pirating is all about, Swashbuckle is on the right track but they miss out where it really matters.

Swashbucklers are probably making an impact and their flying under the flag of Nuclear Blast, too good for them and for Jack Sparrow that they aren’t under the East India company flag.

HHHHHHH