The list of metal bands with a pirate theme keeps growing. The time when Rock ‘n’ Rolf was the main exponent of this theme with his Running Wild is long gone. Pirate Queen is a new band that explores the seven seas of pirate clichés. The formation consists of five ladies, who, according to tradition (read band biography), come from the Bermuda Triangle and return after five hundred years to conquer the world with shows full of pirate LARP and catchy metal melodies. Ghosts is the debut album.
The first live show has yet to take place, but the part of the band description about catchy songs is certainly correct. The first single and opening track Pirates From The Sea leaves little to the imagination in terms of thematics, but it sounds decent. The sturdy melody catches immediately and works like a rough shanty towards a pleasant sing-along chorus. The story is elaborated through a partly spoken passage. During other songs (Ghosts, Santa Luca) instead of a spoken text there is a rougher break.
The traditional, solid heavy metal sound is enhanced with a symphonic edge and the necessary trumpets. It never gets particularly original, but in general the music of this pirate sisterhood is good. It’s a bit like the aforementioned Running Wild, old Nightwish (although not that original) and similar bands from about twenty-five years ago. Especially the opening track, the title song and the third single Santa Luca sound decent. During the latter it even gets a bit harder.
The big negative of this album, however, is not the music, but the lack of it, because although it is called a debut album and is marketed as such, it is in fact nothing more than a glorified EP. The album contains only six tracks, of which Siren’s Tears there is an extra long and boring introduction to the title song. The title track is then repeated twice more: in a radio-friendly version and as a karaoke title. It makes this first album feel very thin with less than twenty-five minutes of truly unique material. Ghosts is a nice start, but a debut album of six relatively short songs is only half the battle.
Track listing:
1.Pirates From The Sea
2. Siren’s Tears
3.Ghosts
4. In The Search Of Eldorado
5. Santa Luca
6.Open Fire
7. Ghosts (Radio Edit)
8. Ghosts (Instrumental)
