Time To Rock 2023: Alestorm brings the party to Knislinge

I have never been a big fan of the Scottish band Alestorm, although I admit to having been hooked on their music when their debut album Captain Morgan’s Revenge was released in 2008. After that I followed their adventures until Sunset On The Golden Age in 2014, although with the departure of their guitarist Dani Evans the following year, I lost a lot of interest. In fact, their later works have seemed increasingly insipid and less inspired to me, especially considering that they have embraced the humorous side of their music, moving further and further away from the darker rhythms that characterized their first three albums and, with it, , the power of their guitars.

However, their popularity has grown as they abandoned their more serious pose to end up looking like a caricature of what they could have been at the time. The sextet from Perth (Scotland) has managed to gather a good handful of followers throughout the world with its carefree attitude, often attacking the clichés of the genre and even making fun of other bands. This is perhaps what has bothered me the most over the years, a feeling that has grown with the passage of time and that has distanced me even further from his musical proposal.

That said, every time I’ve had the opportunity to see them live I’ve ended up staying to see their show since fun is always guaranteed when Alestorm takes the stage. This occasion was not going to be different, since the Scots had a new album under their belt: Seventh Rum Of A Seventh Rum (2022), which they also sold signed at the festival itself. As obvious as it may seem, as is customary, the sextet focuses its repertoire on its most current albums and leaves aside its early works, which in my opinion is a mistake.

The enormous charisma of its lead vocalist and keyboardist, Cristopher Bowes, is something that few could argue with. The founder of Gloryhammer also knows how to put the public in his pocket no matter what he touches, this is a fact. It’s very likely that Alestorm fans even prefer their newer material since they’ve probably gotten to know them in recent years, and with a showman like Bowes at the helm you’ve got more than half a gig done already. The rest of the members are not short either, although Maté Bodor is not an outstanding player on six strings, but they have Elliot Vernon on keyboards which is already a plus.

The show started with Keelhauled, the only track from Black Sails At Midnight (2009), to then perform a lively and fun The Sunk’n Norwegian, from their successor album. From that moment on they focused the rest of the setlist on their last three albums, including that hated Hangover cover by singer Taio Cruz. The occasional derogatory comment alluding to the legacy of Tom G. Warrior fell during the presentation of Under Blackened Banners, and the show continued as if nothing had happened. The audience jumped and danced to the rhythm of the casual and energetic metal of the Scots until the band said goodbye with Fucked With An Anchor, but not before dropping a Drink move or the powerful Captain Morgan’s Revenge, the only reference to their almost-disappeared debut album that has as little relevance to the setlist as Bowes‘ comments towards other musicians.