Podcast Archives - Metal as Medicine

Exploring the Band: Alestorm

Explore the band Alestorm with us as we go through their entire history and discography!

Welcome to our first ever Exploring the Band: Alestorm! During this time we invite the viewers to come on a journey with us while we explore a particular band’s history and discography. Each YouTube video will have a companion blog post here on our website where viewers can follow along, read the notes and checking out the sources and links provided.

Exploring the Band: Alestorm

Origin: Perth, Scotland
Genre: folk/power metal (“pirate” metal)
Lyrical themes: pirates, drinking, adventure, historical events

Current Lineup:
Christopher Bowes – vocals, keytar
Mate Bodor – guitars
Gareth Murdok – bass, backing vocals
Peter Alcorn – drums
Elliot Vernon – keyboards, backing (unclean) vocals

Bandcamp
Spotify

2004

Began in 2004 as Battleheart as an internet band on the Ultimate Metal forums by Gavin Harper and Christopher Bowes.

First Battleheart recordings happened in around this time with Heavy Metal Pirates as one of their first songs.

Old demo video of Heavy Metal Pirates

2006

Battleheart – Self-titled (demo)

Released: April 15, 2006
Metal-Archives: 84%
Metalstorm: 7.1

These songs were re-recorded and released on future albums.

The Korpiklaani song “Journey Man” was covered.

Released on the Ultimate Metal Forum on May 10th, 2006.

June 30th, 2006 – Battleheart played their first gig at Balcony Bar in Dundee.

Terror on the High Seas (Demo)

Released: October 14, 2006
Metal-Archives: 89%
Metalstorm: 7.7

Much higher quality than their previous demo.

All songs were re-recorded for their debut album.

2007

August 8th – Changed their name to Alestorm to not be confused with Battlelore.

August 23rd – The band signs with Napalm Records

2008

Captain Morgan’s Revenge

Released: Jan 25, 2008
Metal Archives: 81%
Metalstorm: 7.8

Recorded September and

Recorded September and October 2007 in Scottland (keyboards) and Germany (everything else)

Only 3 tracks DON’T come from the two previous demos:

Captain Morgan’s Revenge
Huntmaster
Of Treasure

Flower of Scotland is a cover of the unofficial Scottish national anthem by Roy Williamson.

Lasse Lammet does all mixing, producing and engineering. He does all their albums up to the newest.

Heavy metal Pirates was released as a single on April 24th on Napster and iTunes. This was rerecorded during the Captain Morgan’s Revenge studio sessions.

Spent 2008 touring Europe and playing all the festivals including Wacken and Bloodstock.

June 14th – drummer Ian Wilson parted ways with the band due to a busy schedule. He is replaced by Alex Tabisz

Nancy the Tavern Wench live in July 2008

September 11th – Ian Wilson rejoins as drummer

September 13th – Founding member Gavin Harper quits the band citing sleepless nights budgeting, personal differences within the band and moving to a new country (Finland).

He is replaced by Tim Shaw who was fired from the band after a brief period with them. Dani Evans switched instruments from bass to guitar, and Gareth Murdock of Waylander joined as the replacement bassist.

Leviathan EP

October 30th
Metal-Archives: 95%
Metalstorm: 7.9

Wolves of the Sea is a cover of the song that represented Latvia in Eurovision 2008.

2009

Black Sails at Midnight

Released: May 27, 2009
Metal-Archives: 68%
Metalstorm: 7.9

Recorded in November of 2008 at LSD Studio

Keelhauled official video

Sold 600 copies in North America in first week

No Quarter is an instrumental track with the band’s rendition of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme in it.

First ever North American tour took place in 2009.

2010

Began recording their third album on Jan 10th.

Ian Wilson quit the band again one day before their biggest show ever. Christopher Bowes explains that the new drummer can play the drums where the previous one (Ian) couldn’t.

Video linked to the time where Chris talks about Ian Wilson quitting the band

March – Peter Alcorn joins the band on drums

Trenches and Mead tour with Sabaton through Europe.

2011

Back Through Time

Released: June 3rd, 2011
Metal-Archives: 80%
Metalstorm: 7.9

1,200 copies sold in USA first week.

Shipwrecked official video

Death Throes of the Terrorsquid official video

The lyrics to Swashbuckle reference the pirate-themed death/thrash metal band Swashbuckled.

The Sunk’n Norweigen is about a bar in River Falls, Wisconson that Chris was invited to drink after a show and liked the atmosphere so much that he wrote the song.

Rumpelkombo is written so Chris Boltendahl from Grave Digger would receive royalties from Alestorm as a reminder of their tour together. Rumpelkombo was a term to insult Alestorm during an interview. Grave Digger is very professional and Alestorm got drunk before all their shows leaving the former band to not like the latter.

Black metal screams and sections on Death Throes of the Terrorsquid.
More intense drumming with blast beats because their previous drummer couldn’t play them.

In October Elliot Vernon joins the band a keyboardist and backing (unclean) vocalist. Chris Bowes is now the lead vocalist and keytarist.

2012

The band partakes in the 70,000 tons of metal cruise.

March 16th – Christopher Bowes announces the creation of Gloryhammer.

Supported Epica on a USA tour with this ridiculous poster.

2013

Filmed Live at the End of the World DVD on January 18th in Melbourne, Australia.

The DVD was released on November 15th

First headlining tour of Europe. And first ever!

November – First ever headline North America tour.

2014

February – began to record their 4th album

Sunset on the Golden Age

Released: August 1st, 2014
Metal-Archives: 92%
Metalstorm: 8

Drink official video

Magnetic North official video

#1 on the UK rock chart

The title references the end of the Golden Age of Piracy 1680-1720.

2015

April – Dani Evans leaves the band without an announced reason. He is replaced by Mate Bondor of Wisdom.

Headlined Piratefest America with Swashbuckle, The Dread Crow of Oddwood and Rainbowdragoneyes.

2017

January – began recording their 5th album at Audiohammer Studios in Orlando, Florida again with Lasse Lammert.

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No Grave but the Sea

Released: May 26, 2017
Metal-Archives: 81%
Metalstorm: 7.6

Alestorm official video

Mexico official video

A version of the album was made called “No Grave but the Sea for Dogs” which replaced all the vocal tracks with dogs barking the lyrics.

2018

September – Alestorm headlines a North American tour with support from Gloryhammer.

Alestorm explored

Thank you for exploring the band Alestorm with us! It was a lot of fun putting this together and we have a lot more of these on the way. So stay tuned and we hope metal continues to be your medicine!

Podcast Episode 28 – The Nothing

After a two week break we are back with more album reviews in this The Nothing podcast! As usual we take on some bigger releases and smaller more local bands too. Korn released their new album The Nothing along with As I Lay Dying having a new release. So we go through them! Locally we have the deathcore act Angelmaker hitting us real hard with their self-titled sophomore release and progressive rock/metallers Orchestry with their (also) self-titled debut album.

Full episode

Here the full episode (video and audio) is available to stream. We’ve got cut up sections below.

For those who want to listen along the audio of our podcast is still available on all platforms.

Korn – The Nothing Podcast

Korn has a history of being one of those bands to release some great material in the past but always up for debate whether they’ve stayed true to themselves or not. Love them or hate them everyone has developed an opinion over time and we are not unlike.

This new album comes hot off the passing of Jonathan Davis’ mother and wife who passed away within months of each other. That leaves this album with Jonathan pouring his soul into the lyrics and vocal performance. In a way he hasn’t done in a very long time. The nothing podcast goes in depth here so have no fear. We got you covered!

Orchestry – Self-titled

Vancouver’s own prog metal Orchestry is here with their self-titled album. This act impressed me when they were in Kelowna earlier this year for the Odinfist release party and so it was a real pleasure to listen to the album and discuss it with Richard. Check them out on Bandcamp and show some support!

As I Lay Dying

Having never listened to this album I found it a real pleasure to go through. Surprising in just how much I enjoyed this release. I’m not a huge fan of metalcore though I do feel myself warming up to it especially having to go through a few really decent releases recently.

Angelmaker

Angelmaker slaps hard. This deathcore band from North Vancouver know how to bring it. They are loud and heavy. So just deal with it! We are proud to have such talent from a local area like British Columbia. Follow this band cause not only does this release kick ass but most likely their future albums will too. Head over to their Bandcamp and show some love!

Podcast Episode 27: The Entity, Illyrian

Illyrian stopped by Kelowna on September 19th and took the time to sit down with us and discuss their new album and short tour of BC they had just begun. The Illyrian podcast is the 27th episode of Metal as Medicine and though it took some time to be released we slowed down our schedule to allow for better and routine content. Please bear with us as we go through this transition!

Hailing straight from Calgary is more THRASH METAL!!

Illyrian Podcast

Illyrian in Kelowna bringing their thrash metal hot off the release of their sophomore album The Entity, Unknown. A few weeks ago Richard, Randy and I had a discussion about this album and both of us really enjoyed it and were surprised with the great quality of the material offered.

They thrashed through Kelowna with openers black metal outfit Svneatr from Vancouver. We previously had them on the show back in May so it was great to catch up with the guys again.

The Entity, Unknown album discussion

Our album discussion for Illyrian’s sophomore release came out during a run up to the show they had. Here is our video to help get you hyped for this thrash album:

Illyrian live footage

An Illyrian podcast wouldn’t be like any other Metal as Medicine podcast if we didn’t include some live footage from their show too! So here are some videos we took of these fine dudes thrashing out at Muninn’s Post in Kelowna:

Support Illyrian

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Metal-Archives

Podcast Episode 26: Apprentice

Apprentice sits down with us to have a conversation about their debut album and what they’ve been working on lately

Apprentice was recently in Kelowna throwing down their entire debut album plus more for the metalheads of Muninn’s Post. They put on a great show with a wicked blend of progressive power metal and melodeath.

The Apprentice podcast

Progressive power/melodeath metallers Apprentice joins us to discuss their debut album The Strength of Mortality and what they’ve been working on for future releases. Yo-yo action and much Devin Townsend fills this episode!

As per usual before their set Richard and I took the opportunity to record a video interview with the band for what has become our 26th episode of the podcast. Usually we do audio but we are testing out all the equipment we have access to and continue to progress and expand our capabilities.

So we again have both a video and audio podcast available for your listening or viewing pleasure. It is most interesting that this time around it is our first band interview that we’ve gone and recorded. Thank you to Apprentice for agreeing to do this and taking the time out of their day to record with us.

I say this often but I really do mean it every time. It was a pleasure having the band on the show and we look forward to hosting them again sometime in the future where we can hopefully implement more features to the product we put out there for the Internet.

Later in the conversation Joey brought up that the band had yo-yos on sale at their merch table and promised to show us some tricks. So we present to you Joey Hockin’s yo-yo tricks!!

Support Apprentice

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Spotify
Bandcamp

Podcast Episode 25: The Strength of Fear

Podast episode 25 marks back to back discussion episodes without a band interview. This hasn’t been done in a few months! It doesn’t mean we are done with the interviews we have tons lined up and lots of people to talk with. For this episode though we pile up the album discussions to three. We discuss debut albums from BC local progressive metallers Apprentice and Seattle heavy metallers Greyhawk. Both of which put out debut releases which are both stellar in their own ways.

I’m not sure if you have heard this already but Tool has released an album. It has been out now for almost a couple weeks and that has given us time to digest it and allowed our discussion to deep into what makes this album a top notch progressive rock/metal release but the legendary Tool Band. It has taken a long time for the band to get around to releasing this album and not without good reason.

Passively looking for sponsors!

We are a busy team working on this project along with our working lives and other interests we pursue outside of metal and music. So having said that we are passively looking for sponsors to help build up our project and make it the best we can. If you or someone you know may have a product or business that would be fitting for our demographic please contact us and we will be glad to work something out! Our active search for sponsors has not commenced yet.

Terry Fox Run

The Terry Fox run is taking place September 15th at the Mission Sportsfield in Kelowna, BC. Richard is volunteering there and it would be great for people to come out get some exercise and support a fantastic cause! Registration is at 10:00am and the non-competitive run starts at 11:00am. Terry Fox truly was metal before the term was created.

Apprentice

In podcast episode 25 we discussed Apprentice’s debut album. They are coming to Kelowna on September 14th to Muninn’s Post and thought it would make for a good chance to listen to and discuss their album The Strength of Mortality before seeing their live show.

We clipped the album discussion and embedded it above for those who want to see just that section. We highly recommend listening to the album and consider coming out to any shows they may have going on near you.

They are on Spotify and also Bandcamp for those who want to support the band by throwing a few bucks their way in the digital world.

Greyhawk

A ripping good time is had by anyone who listens to Greyhawk. Somewhere between traditional heavy metal and power metal these guys find themselves the right spot of showing off their influences but not without their own flair.

Tool Band

Tool released a new album. The first in many years. 13 to be exact. How is it? What did we think? We dive deep into the album and exactly what it means to us and how it will be received by the masses of rabid Tool fans that are out there.

Thanks for taking the time to listen to podcast episode 25. It really means a lot to us as we continue to advance this project further into the realm of multimedia.