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Live Reviews : Alestorm, Voyager and Claim the Throne @ Amplifier Bar, Perth 22/01/2013

By on February 1, 2013

Pirates, keytars, chain-mail, beer bongs, horse heads, hats of all shapes and sizes and Justin Bieber memorabilia — just a regular Tuesday night when Alestorm are in town.

The opener was the local folk metal band, Claim the Throne. The band, clad in armour and chain mail certainly looked “folky”. Their music is very reminiscent of Turisas, Ensiferum and Korpiklaani but on 7 stringed guitars and more influenced by beer than battle. During the 40 minute set, Chris Bowes from Alestorm got up on-stage numerous time in an attempt get the band members drunk, with a help of a beer bong. This obviously worked as the drunken-mid-song-banter ranged from hilarious to nonsensical. Playing a mix of new songs and old classics, the band was tight and generally well received by the gathering crowd. If the new song is any indication about the quality of the upcoming album, then Claim the Throne are about to become one of the biggest folk metal bands in Australia. Needless to say, anyone who has not heard of them needs to give them a listen.

The Perth melodic metal legends, Voyager, were on stage next. Their incredibly tight set covered material from all four of their albums, but mainly focused on ‘I am the Revolution’ and ‘The Meaning Of I’. Even on a tiny stage, the band exuded incredible presence and command of their environment and the crowd. Voyager know how to have a good time on stage. Be it the fact that there is a bright red keytar onstage, or the fact that they sneak in a medley of songs you would not expect from a metal band (including ‘Killing In the Name Of’, ‘What Is Love’, The ‘Ghostbusters’ theme song and even ‘You’re the Voice’), the whole band just emanates fun. Voyager sound like a combination of ABBA, Soilwork, Rhapsody of the Fire and Symphony X, but from time to time sing about unicorns (As in the song ‘White Shadow’, the final song of the set). On paper, this sounds incredibly strange. Live and on record – it’s the most captivating musical experience. I urge anyone and everyone to check Voyager out; they are well worth your time.

Up next was Alestorm. The opener for their set was “The Quest”, the chorus of which perfectly sums up the band in its current state “We sail the endless oceans / We sail the raging seas / The quest is never ending / It leads us to destiny”. Alestorm are without a doubt one of the most hardworking bands in metal right now, touring all over the world pretty much nonstop over the last few years. The constant touring has made Alestorm a well-greased machine. These guys are incredibly tight. The selection of songs covered all of their albums and Alestorm, like all of the bands, had an incredible amount of fun. The two highlights of the set for me were when Danny from Voyager came on stage with a Justin Bieber Keytar (which was promptly destroyed, albeit with some difficulty) and the song “Death Throes of the Terrorsquid”. The reason why this song stood out to me is because there is a section in it that features Ken Sorceron, the vocalist of Symphonic Black metal band Abigail Williams. It was pretty amazing to hear Chris Bowes, who is not known for his growls, pull off that section as well as he did. All in all, this whole evening was absurd.

All of the bands played incredibly well, had a lot of fun, drank a lot of beer, and delivered an unforgettable gig. Easily the best way to spend a Tuesday night.

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