Party Piracy All the Time - A Review of Alestorm's Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum

In chaotic times of change, it can be enjoyable to listen to a consistent band that doesn't move even one iota away from its trademark sounds and comes around with new material every second year. Such is the case of Alestorm's Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum. Simply stated, this record is a party album with short tunes, catchy keyboard fanfares and enthusiastic choruses about silly pirate tales and party spirit.

If compared to previous records by the same band, this album here is overall a little bit faster. ''Come to Brazil'' for instance would qualify as a thrash metal song without the keyboard sounds. 

The latter might even be more domineering on this output than on previous releases which makes the individual songs more accessible, catchy and melodic but also somewhat exchangeable and predictable as is the case for ''Cannonball'' for instance. 

Keyboarder Elliot Vernon performs more additional vocals than usual as well as his gritty shouts add some welcome energy to tunes like ''Under Blackened Banners''. 

Speaking of vocals, there are several guests appearing in tracks like the third and final part of ''Wooden Leg'' that features Spanish and Japanese lyrics as well as entertaining bonus track ''Nyár Van'' which features Hungarian lyrics and was originally made famous by Neoton Familia.

Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum is certainly very entertaining from start to finish through thirteen enthusiastic songs on the limited edition. However, the record doesn't have much substance as several ideas of yore are being used time and again, both instrumentally and lyrically. To be honest, that kind of repetition was however to be expected as fans will love what they are listening to while haters won't ever be understanding how Alestorm ever got as big as they are nowadays. The best way to enjoy our favourite drunk pirates is in concert and this album offers numerous tracks written to be sung by equally drunk fans. Once the pandemic will be coming to an end, celebrating quirky pirate tales performed by Alestorm with like-minded fans might actually be a great idea to have some fun. Cheers!

Final Rating: 80%