Rating: 9/10
Release: 6 September 2024
Label: Independent / Bandcamp

Drunkelweizen is a five-member (or soon-to-be-five-member at the time of writing) folk metal band from Oregon in the United States, and “Pioneers of Alcohol” is their debut album. These folks sure do love their alcohol which works out well for me, because so do I. Currently, they have a social media presence, a Bandcamp, and a SoundCloud page, but Googling for them is a challenge. These guys are just getting started.

A folk metal band themed around pirates and booze might seem like a fairly saturated market… Alestorm, Rumahoy, The Privateer, and Ye Banished Privateers are all fair comparisons in various aspects. However, I had a lot of fun listening to this, and that’s what’s really important. There are some big oompah vibes, guttural vocals, clean vocals, probably drunk vocals, and vocals in between. There are a few melodies that sound familiar to the genre, but that sort of familiarity is welcome here. When we go to their show, we’ll know instinctively how to dance along.

Let’s get to the tracks, and let me preface: most of them are long. Three songs clock in at over seven minutes. The overture is long, too, at two and a half minutes of instrumental vibe-setting. “Robinhood of Moonshine” is a little repetitive, but a great opening to the album. It’s got the oompah beats and two guitar solos… the first one is a little weak but endearing. “Draining the Cask” is your standard pirate work song. “St. Brigid” is one of the two best songs on the album. It’s slower, but has a chorus you can sing along to, and then near the end, the same chorus but faster. It’s friendly and heartwarming.

“Pioneers of Alcohol” and “Lines of Ale” fall off the rails. It’s a shame the former is the title track, because the chant simply doesn’t work. The rest is more than thrashy: it’s messy. My notes say “discordant”, and that sums up both tracks. “Lines of Ale”, though, is only a minute and a half long, so it can be forgiven.

“Ein Frosch” ties with “St. Brigid”. They’re both epic songs that invite folks to sing along. “Ein Frosch” (“A Frog”) even shows off a little German in one of the verses. “We must be drunk ourselves if we’re singin’ this again”… it’s so much fun. And by “FML”, the closing track, we’re asking “What if Alestorm was thrash?” because it stands for ‘Folk Metal Lobster’, and it’s a fun and amazing way to end this album.All-in-all, a debut album with only one and a half tracks that kinda miss the mark is really damn good. The hit songs absolutely smash the mark, and almost any of the songs on this album would have me bouncing on the floor and throwing the horns if I saw them live. Every folk and pirate metal fan should give Drunkelweizen a spin. Highly recommended!

Tracklist

1. Moonshine Overture
2. Robinrood of Moonshine
3. Draining the Cask
4. St. Brigid
5. Pioneers of Alcohol
6. Lines on Ale
7. Ein Frosch
8. FML