Captain Morgan’s Revenge is the 2008 debut album from Alestorm, a Scottish power metal band. They are often referred to as “pirate metal,” as their songs draw heavily upon The Golden Age of Piracy for inspiration. The main creative force behind Alestorm is the enigmatic Christopher Bowes, who is the primary songwriter, the lead singer, and plays, of all things, the key-tar. When not working with Alestorm or any of his other countless side projects, Bowes is also the founder and keyboardist for another power metal outfit – Gloryhammer.

For the uninitiated, Power Metal is to music what Swords & Sorcery is to writing. They’re both niches with legions of the most dedicated fans anywhere, yet are too nerdy to ever truly go mainstream, and they're at their worst when they try. A casual fan of either is a rarity. Yet I’m exactly that. I’ll dip a tentative toe into both worlds, yet I’m content to stay on the periphery.

First and foremost, Alestorm are fun – and it’s surprisingly difficult in the music industry to write songs that are fun yet are still any good. Jimmy Buffett can pull it off, but not many others. In rock? There's Van Halen. AC/DC. Scorpions. It's a shockingly short list.

And in metal? We metalheads take ourselves way too serious to ever dare be seen having fun. We're too busy being angry at the world! And then there's Alestorm. They're far more interested in the pirate mythos than pesky reality. They proudly hoist the black flag, walk the plank, and include all sorts of swashbuckling excitement that makes for fun stories, but play fast and loose with historical reality. All while wearing lime green kilts onstage.

For me, this album represents a unique challenge for several reasons. First is the music itself – I cast a broad net, musically, yet I rarely find myself listening to power metal. Too much keyboard, too much cheese. I prefer my metal with a heaping dose of anger and seething contempt for humanity. There are far worse things than power metal, but there are also far more satisfying choices. Yet as I listened, I couldn’t help but enjoy it. By the end of the project, Alestorm had firmly established themselves as a guilty pleasure of mine.

Captain Morgan’s Revenge was not written as a concept album, yet 9 of the 10 songs are set during the Golden Age of Piracy. To me, it seemed a logical next step to have all of them happen to the same ship/crew and create a single overriding story. This required rearranging the song order, as an order which works musically isn’t necessarily the most effective when trying to tell a coherent story.

This album also gave me an opportunity to create a whole host of characters who are in truth little more than tropes. If you're looking for introspection and growth, Alestorm isn't your band. There's no time for that with all the swashbuckling!

The first challenge, then, became the 10^th song – a cover of a traditional Scottish folk song about the War of Scottish Independence in 1314. Centuries of time and thousands of miles separate it from the rest of the album, so how do I weave it in seamlessly? I could have left it as a standalone story, but weaving it into the existing narrative helped make the project interesting to me. It ended up allowing me to create not one, but three new characters; Scotsmen that I named Angus, Malcolm, and Ronnie in tribute to one of the most fun rock bands ever (not to mention one of the best): AC/DC.

In addition, I tend to pride myself on being as historically accurate as I can in my work, so incorporating details that range from implausible to ridiculous added another layer of challenge.

It seems odd to say, but the fact that the songs were intended to be fun presented a surprising challenge. In my own writing, I tend to take a grittier approach. I treat the pirates as outlaws; the antiheroes of their day. I give them a treatment similar to mobsters, Vikings, gunfighters, professional wrestlers, or rock stars. The ones that didn't fall into piracy through reluctance and fate were true sociopaths. They’re not heroes – they’re complicated. Yet we treat them as heroic figures. The biggest challenge for me was to keep the mythos, keep the fun, and be serious some of the time, but not be overly so. After all, who can possibly be serious when there’s a key-tar playing?

Chapter 1 Nancy The Tavern Wench - Album song 4
Chapter 2 Over The Seas - Album song 1
Chapter 3 Flower of Scotland - Album song 10
Chapter 4 Terror on the High Seas - Album song 6
Chapter 5 Wenches and Mead - Album song 9
Chapter 6 The Huntmaster - Album song 3
Chapter 7 Of Treasure - Album song 8
Chapter 8 Captain Morgan's Revenge - Album song 2
Chapter 9 Set Sail and Conquer - Album song 7
Chapter 10 Death Before the Mast - Album song 5

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Morgan's_Revenge

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