Rating: 8.9/10
Release: 14 Februrary 2025
Label: Independent

Cave Growl’s latest effort, “the Ace of Beer” packs a full package ranging from high speed folk glazed melodies, to mid-paced death metal tinged numbers, going all the way into pure europower territory. Readers might be asking, aside from making Rhapsody blush and making Cannibal Corpse give a slow clap, what is really unique in terms of the folk metal played by what is really a very run of the mill folk metal band? Honestly, not much. The folk metal is nothing extraordinary, An Dro is on there, there’s the mandatory Irish jig that shall remain nameless but that you’ve heard on every other folk album, there are vikings, there are beer, even pirates. When people talk of Metal being cheesy this is really what they’re picturing. However, the music is good. No band will cover the sheer range of sub-genres and topics here with serviceable music at that without being competent. And the band has passion, it shows in their music, and if one writes an over one hour album with almost double the track number of a LP, you will run out of steam if you have no substance. But there’s passion here, there’s a love for the craft, hence the various subgenres they muscle into with some tracks, there is some inspired songwriting; so even if sometimes the lyrics feel a little like the clowning albums of Pirate Metal, I can’t fault it. These Frenchmen are having fun, and while I don’t really tend towards this kind of silliness in my music of late, there is an audience for the sound, it won’t scare off the uninitiated, and as I’ve reiterated many times already, they know what they’re doing. Check out “Ace of Beer” if you’re wanting to have fun at your next party, its the album’s use as intended, and if you like listening to something fun or a little different you might enjoy the variety you get for the length of runtime. “

Tracklist

1. L’empire contre un pack 06:46
2. Morning Headache 04:43
3. Captain Blackbeard 05:37
4. Man of Aran 04:50
5. The Beer Suppressor 05:08
6. Sons of War 04:10
7. La valse des gens bourrés 03:44
8. Tavern Addicted 05:01
9. Something Drunk 07:39
10. Story of a Straight Man’s Life 03:50
11. Hey Hey Oh ! 06:29
12. An Dro 04:09
13. Ace of Beer 07:21
14. Saturday Night Cold Fever 06:49