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Skullclub

Kaptajn Overdrive

Written by: PP on 28/01/2024 21:54:13

Get your shandy and bottles of rum ready for the third album "Kaptajn Overdrive" by Danish sea pirates Skullclub, who are angling themselves as the perfect afternoon band at a festival like Copenhell. Here's an album's worth of seaworthy folk-punk and -metal songs sung exclusively in Danish in a style that makes you wonder whether these are cover songs at first if you didn't know better.

Take "Jagtsæson", for instance, which sounds like some famous Volbeat-ish pop rock song that I can't quite recall, only converted into a folk metal format. It belongs to the same cultural bucket as Red Warszawa in its ridiculous Dane-hø-hø humour that makes you truly cringe (see also: "Mand Bider Hund"), but at least Skullclub is relatively catchy, upbeat, and melodic in the process.

Stylistically, it's a folk punkish version of Alestorm that borrows from the mandolin-driven melodies of bands like Flogging Molly or Dropkick Murphys, while throwing in plenty of piratery in the process. In other words, it's like a sweet spot between folk punk and folk metal, so no wonder they were recently invited on board the Copenhell Cruise. Also, in other words, that's like sweet, sweet candy for the Danish festival audiences.

But from a critic's perspective, Skullclub feels more like a joke than a band to be taken seriously. The melodies are decent but the quality of the song varies significantly throughout the record. Some songs are maddeningly catchy, others just see metallic distortion ("Motorsav") that really goes nowhere at all. They're bound to be incredibly fun in a live environment after a few beers but as an album? "Kaptajn Overdrive" leaves much to be desired, at least if you're used to some sophistication instead of bølle humour.

Download: Mand Bider Hund, Kong Krykhusar, Jagtsæson
For the fans of: Alestorm, Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys, Volbeat, Red Warszawa
Listen: Facebook

Release date 08.03.2024
Mermaid Records