LONDON CELTIC PUNKS PRESENTS THE BEST OF 2020!

Well here we go again. It seems an awful long time since we were compiling all the votes into 2019’s Best Of. Last year saw The Walker Roaders triumph but with this year being a lot quieter on the Celtic-Punk front thanks to the lockdowns around the world bands have found themselves unable to tour and promote new releases so have held onto them till things got better. Still that’s not to say it was a complete wash out and as you can see from below their have been some absolute knock-outs during the year.

Remember this is only our opinion so feel free to comment, slag off or dissect our lists. The Readers Poll is back again this year so you can even vote on your favourite release of 2020 yourself. We don’t pretend to be the final word as that my friends is for you…

(for more information click on the release title in green)

Was very close between the top three this year but Ogras seem to have been not only our favourites but also most of the Celtic-Punk medias too. A lot less albums may have come out during the year but still plenty more that didn’t make the cut. Don’t be down hearted if you are one of them it could just be that one of the judges hadn’t heard that album. Again if we don’t hear your album we can’t review it so the massive majority here are ones that were sent in to us. We only need a download link (NO Spotify!) and we’re happy. Out of the 30 albums 18 countries were represented including 2 from the Celtic nations Scotland #4 and Brittany #13 and our first from Hawaii!

1. OGRAS – No Love In The City

2. UNCLE BARD AND THE DIRTY BASTARDS – The Men Behind The Glass

3. FINNEGANS HELL – Work Is The Curse Of The Drinking Class

4. THECUNDEEZ – Teckle And Hide

5. KRAKIN’ KELLYS – Burn Your Flag

6. THE GO-SET – Of Bright Futures And Broken Pasts

7. BLACK WATER COUNTY – Comedies And Tragedies

8. McSCALLYWAG – Songs For The Wicked

9. BATALLON DE SAN PATRICIO- Hermanos De Guerra

10. THE O’REILLYS AND THE PADDYHATS – Off The Leash

11. THE REAL McKENZIES – Beer And Loathing

12. THE MUCKERS – Irish Goodbye

13. CELT & PIPER – No Mercy

14. THE FEELGOOD MacLOUDS – Life On A Ferris Wheel

15. FEROCIOUS DOG – You

16. THE KONA ROGUES – Batten Down The Hatches

17. PADDY WAGGIN- Race To The Bottom

18. BLACK ANEMONE – Chasing The Sun

19. PADDY MURPHY – Rams Rebels Goats And Girls

20. THE STUBBY SHILLEAGHS – Glass To Mouth

21. CELKILT – The Next One Down

22. THE DEAD MAGGIES – More Than Just Ghosts

23. KELTIKON – The Black Boar

24. THE CELTIC SOCIAL CLUB – From Babylon To Avalon

25. BARBAR O’RHUM – Journal de B’O’R

26. JAMESTOWN BROTHERS – Rebels, Rogues And Regrets

27. SMZB – Once Upon A Time In The East

28. THE NEW RUFFIANS – Shenanigans

29. GRASS MUD HORSE – Beijing Bikini

30. NEVER SAY DIE – Punk Rock Pirates

Several bands have taken the chance during the lockdown to release compilations of sorts. While it would be a little unfair to include them in the main ‘Best Of’ section they still deserve a mention. Among these were two 30 year celebrations from two of Celtic-Punks most successful and popular bands in THE MAHONES – This Is All We Got To Show For It and FIDDLER’S GREEN – 3 Cheers For 30 Years. Both fully deserve a round of applause, a raise of the pint and a tip o’ the hat! Band compilations included ANTO MORRA – Twenty, THE DEAD RABBITS – The Dead Rabbits, LEXINGTON FIELD – Here’s To You Ten Years Of Fiddle Rock and LQR – Barrel-Aged. A couple of live albums THE STANFIELDS – Welcome To The Ball and ShamROCKS – FCP Live were both well received, you may have heard that a little known band THE POGUES put out a new album of previously unreleased material BBC Sessions 1984-86 and Quintessential Quarantunes was a 6-band compilation released in the Summer featuring the Bible Code Sundays and The Reels. MacSlons Irish Pub Radio also released volume 5 of Raise Your Pints the best Celtic-Punk sampler around of 19 of the Celtic-Punk scenes best bands.

You have to go back to the beginning of January for 1916’s release and though many more would challenge it stayed top of the pile all year long. Some great debut releases here from bands that will I am sure go on to bigger things. This time last year I was crowing about Shanghai Treason and how much I was looking forward to seeing them play… well I still am!

1. 1916 – Meant To Be

2. SHANGHAI TREASON – It’s Treason

3. BEAVER SECRET HANDSHAKE – Beaver Secret Handshake

4. KILMAINE SAINTS – Off The Wagon Acoustic Sessions

5. LEXINGTON FIELD – Win The Day

6. 7 STOUT CLAN – 7 Stout Clan

7. THE CLOVES AND THE TOBACCO – Jalan Pulang

8. LUCKY LAD GREEN – Get There Somehow

9. BRAVE THE SEA – The Murders Three

10. THE PLACKS – My Dearest Friend

BATALLON DE SAN PATRICIO- Hermanos De Guerra

This year’s winner of Best Debut Album comes from a continent where Celtic-Punk appears to be booming! The South American scene has been dominated in the past by bands from Brazil and Argentina (last years winners in this category were Aires Bastardos from Argentina) but with Batallón de San Patricio from Guadalajara in Mexico things are changing with several bands popping up over the last couple of years. The last twelve months have seen Batallón de San Patricio garner favourable reviews from various singles and live streams. Hermanos De Guerra/ Brothers Of War is delivered entirely in Spanish and spans the length of Celtic-Punk from trad Irish up to Celtic-PUNK making it fully deserving of the award.

Always the hardest list to compile as it covers so much ground. Some of these bands play Trad Folk with a Punk Rock heart like Clover’s Revenge while others didn’t quite fit as Celtic-Punk releases but the winners are the Rose family from NY state otherwise known as The Wild Irish Roses. An album that took us by surprise and managed to please everyone.

1. THE WILD IRISH ROSES – Full Bloom

2. CLOVERS REVENGE – Truants And Absolution

3. 6’10 – Carried In Retrospect

4. RUNA – The Tide Of Winter

5. MAGGIES FLOCK – Party At The Cemetery

6. PYROLYSIS – Alotsie

7. PATRICKS – Rocky Road To Ireland

8. HUGH MORRISON – The Other Side

9. TC COSTELLO – The Bluebird

10. PEAT & DIESEL – Light My Byre

Now this section is tinged with sadness. There is no question which site has the biggest impact on the Celtic-Punk scene over the last year and while not strictly a web-site the CELTIC PUNK, FOLK AND ROCK FANS group on Facebook fully deserved this years award. Sadness because the group founder Mike Kilroe very sadly passed away at the beginning of the month. Created back in February 2019 it was around the time of last years ill fated St. Patrick’s day and the subsequent Dropkick Murphys live stream show that membership of the group exploded and has now passed over 8000 members. If on Facebook they should be your first port of call, alongside us of course! We had a great interview with the founder of the group Mike back in May that you can find here and of course our thoughts go out to his family and friends.

We are not alone in doing these Best Of 2020 lists in fact all the major players in Celtic-Punk do them so click below to check out what they thought.

THE CELTIC PUNKCAST  *  FOLK’N’ROCK  *  PADDYROCK

So there you go. Remember we have never pretended to be the final word on things in fact have a look at the other Celtic-Punk media’s Best Of’s and I’m sure they are all pretty different. Our Best Of’s, as usual, cajoled and bullied out of the admins from the London Celtic Punks Facebook page and then tallied up over a few pints in Mannions in north London. One important thing to note is that not all of us heard the same albums so like all the various Best Of’s ours is also subjective.

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Nine years we’ve been doing these lists now. It seems incredible looking back at some of the previous winners and also-rans how so many bands are still with us from Year 1. If you would like to check for yourself then just click on the link below the relevant year.

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Alongside the Best Of polls we also run a special Readers Poll where you get to pick your favourite release of the year. This will be The Readers Poll’s third year with Krakin’ Kellys and Mickey Rickshaw previously champions! There is only room to list the Top Ten albums but there is an option to write in your favourite release of 2020. You are allowed to vote for up to two releases but not for the same artist.

The Poll will close at midnight on Sunday 31st January with the result announced soon after.

 Sláinte, The London Celtic Punks Crew- January, 2021

2020 ROUND-UP’S. THE MAHONES, RUNA, ALESTORM, MAGGIES FLOCK, BARBAR O’RHUM

2020 was by and large a shitty year for music. Sure their were a few bright spots… off the top of my head the many Live Streams but it was never going to replace live gigs for the Celtic-Punk scene where live gigs are everything. Even in a year with much fewer releases we still couldn’t keep up with everything! At London Celtic Punks we pride ourselves on giving detailed and extensive reviews but sometimes this isn’t quite possible so here’s the ‘Round-Up’s’ of some of the records we missed first time round.

THE MAHONES –  ’30 Years And This Is All We’ve Got To Show For It’

Just a couple of weeks ago we reviewed the 30th anniversary album of German band Fiddlers Green and around the same time was released another album by a Celtic-Punk giant on the other side of the planet celebrating thirty years in the game this time from The Mahones. Yes 30 years. THIRTY. Hard to believe isn’t it? Popular throughout the world they have recorded eleven studio albums, two live albums, an acoustic album and a compilation marking their 25 year anniversary and have covered more miles than British Airways! Here they have carefully chosen nineteen tracks of their best from across the 30 years of their career. The album is available as a ten track vinyl release (on green!) and also on CD and download with nine bonus tracks from True North Records. As for the songs they are everything you would expect. We may have heard them all before but their really is something for everyone here as The Mahones flit from raucous Irish Punk rockers to maudlin and sad ballads. The mix of songs is perfect and the balance between the harder songs and the ballads is as well. For a band that tours as much as The Mahones do 2020 must have been a particularly difficult year for The Mahones but already with dates released for 2021 (see you in London in February!) they are well prepared to take their 31st year by the throat when it arrives.

Contact The Mahones  FacebookPage  FacebookGroup YouTube  Instagram

RUNA – ‘The Tide of Winter’

American Irish ‘supergroup’ Runa are one of the best Irish Folk/Trad bands around. This is due in no small part to the beautiful voice of lead singer Shannon Lambert-Ryan (who also plays quite a mean harp!) and that they also have the ability to weave other influences into their signature sound without you even noticing. Several LP’s in Runa have become famous on both sides of the Atlantic now and continue their path with The Tide Of Winter. Now by rights this ought to have been done pre-Christmas but it slipped the net and we ran out of time. A beautiful, at times haunting and at others spirit lifting, collection of thirteen Christmas themed songs and carols. All the favourites are here (‘In The Bleak Midwinter’, ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’, ‘Silent Night’) as well as a few new ones including a stunning version of ‘The Wexford Carol’ (also known as ‘Enniscorthy Carol’) recorded in its native Irish Gaelic.

It was in May 2019 that Runa got together for a weekend to get into the Christmas spirit and started working on arrangements for the album. Highlights beyond those already mentioned include the track ‘Instrumental’ which features the songs ‘Hark the Herald / Dixie Hoedown / Red Prairie Dawn / O Come Emmanuel / Road to Cashel’ seamlessly joined together with some amazing musical work from Fionán, Chery, Caleb and Jake. One for next Christmas I suppose but hopefully by then Runa’s joyous album really will be something to celebrate.

Buy The Tide of Winter  CD- FromTheBand  Download- Here

Contact Runa  WebSite  Facebook  Instagram  YouTube

ALESTORM – ‘Curse Of the Crystal Coconut’

From traditional Christmas folk music now to Heavy Metal! Founded in 2004 in Perth, Scotland by Christopher Bowes Alestorm are one of the pioneers and certainly the leading light of Pirate Metal! Basically the combination of Heavy Rock/Metal and Pirate music. Now Pirate music is often confused with Celtic music and for good reason too. The similarities are obvious to anyone with a pair of ears with plenty of the same melodies (and even some of the same songs) criss-crossing the genres. Alestorm have been together for fourteen years and they may have toned down the Metal side of their music a little but their popularity seems set to continue with this their sixth album. Now I don’t claim to know much about this genre but it does seem to be growing and their have been a few high profile gigs in London over the last couple of the years with Alestorm headlining some of the towns biggest venues. Released in May on Napalm Records and recorded in Thailand this is as good a place as any to start if this genre interests you. Songs like ‘Treasure Chest Party Quest’, ‘Fannybaws’ and ‘Pirate’s Scorn’ give you an idea but it is the epic eight minute ‘Wooden Leg Pt. 2 (The Woodening)’ that really stood out for me showing there’s more to Alstorm than gimmick.

Contact Alestorm  WebSite  Facebook  Instagram

MAGGIE’S FLOCK – Party At The Cemetery

The debut release from Dutch Celtic-Folk-Rockers Maggie’s Flock. The six-piece band from Nijmegen / Arnhem that play a style of music that veers from Celtic-Rock to traditional Folk with more than a little Celtic twist. The band had the novel idea to release a video/song a month on You Tube from January 2020 through to December and then compile the songs into an album and release it. We have tracked these videos over the last year and it really is worth checking them (the Party At The Cemetery YouTube play-list) out yourselves as the work the band put into them deserves it. So quite a novel idea in quite the ‘novel’ year! The Netherlands has quite the cool Celtic scene and one of our gigs last year that Covid killed off was a Dutch Celtic-Punk double-header with Pyrolysis and The Royal Spuds. Musically Maggies Flock come across to me as a ‘mature’ Dropkick Murphys. I mean the Dropkicks sound of recent rather than their punky years. Catchy, tuneful songs with chugging guitars and superb whistles and accordion. ‘The album opener ‘The Poguey Club’ is one of the many highlights here and you can tell this album has not been rushed into. The idea of releasing a song a month has worked perfectly here as the balance of songs is great and the music is not solely Celtic veering into more Folk-Rock/Punk at times. Personally I love me Tipp songs so I especially loved ‘Travelling Laddie’ but the fast ‘Bored Beyond Death’ is sure to get the toes tapping.

A lot of effort then and not just in the music with the vinyl version coming in a luxurious fold-out cover with all the lyrics while the CD has an extensive 24 page illustrated booklet.

Buy Party At The Cemetary – Vinyl/CD FromTheBand

Contact Maggie’s Flock  WebSite  Facebook  YouTube  Instagram

BARBAR’O’RHUM – Journal de B’O’R

Drawing in inspiration from sea-shanties, traditional music, Celtic-Rock and Celtic-Punk, Irish-Punk and Folk-Metal, Barbar’O’Rhum inhabit an area that sits somewhere between Alestorm and The Mahones. Founded in 2014 in the South-West Of France the band offer up their own style of music they call ‘Rock ‘n’ Rhum’. The musical style here owes much to theatrics making them more a band you would want to witness live but they have captured the sound of the band here rather well and also the atmosphere too which I would think is a lot harder. From beginning to end it’s an accessibly joyful Punk Rock stomp from album opener ‘Pirate des Champs’ which brings in some offbeat but delightful influences to eight minute epic ‘Freres de Bitte’ which brings down the curtain on the album and manages to capture all the various parts of Barbar’O’Rhum in one bombastic theatrical campy triumph. Yet in a album that lasts over an hour and the majority of the songs are around the five minute mark it’s that opening track that stand outs head and shoulders and one listen to that will tell you all you need to know about whether you would like this album or not. Me I fecking loved it!

Contact Barbar O’Rhum  WebSite  Facebook  YouTube  Instagram

So their you go our ‘last’ post of 2020. Apologies to all the bands that we weren’t able to give each album the full London Celtic Punks treatment but was just not possible this time. Remember if you are in a band then we cant do a review if we haven’t heard your release!

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ODDS’N’SODS. CELTIC-PUNK ROUND UP DECEMBER 2020

In a attempt to get away from just doing ‘ReviewReviewReviewReview…’ we started a monthly feature of all the Celtic-Punk news that passed us by. All will get a mention but I need YOU to help if it’s going to work. Any band news, record releases, videos, tours (not individual gigs though yet sadly), live streams, crowd funders etc., send it into us at londoncelticpunks@hotmail.co.uk or through the Contact Us page.

So much has written about it but here is our one and only take on FONY and it comes from the man himself. The Pogues’ Shane MacGowan brands decision to censor Fairytale of New York ‘ridiculous’  from The Irish Post, 25th November 2020.

We may have heard it a million times before but here’s a different spin on FONY but with a New York Puerto Rican influence by ST. DOYLE AND THE LAST CALL PHILHARMONIC.

‘Johnny Depp Presents’ it states right at the beginning of this feature length documentary on the Godfather of Celtic-Punk the legendary Shane MacGowan. Featuring unseen archival footage from The Pogues and Shane’s family, as well as animation from Ralph Steadman, Julien Temple’s rollicking love letter spotlights the iconic frontman up to his 60th birthday celebration, where singers, movie stars and Rock’n’Roll outlaws gathered to celebrate the man and his legacy. Available everywhere December 4th!!

The BRICK TOP BLAGGERS are a wicked band and here’s a full band live performance originally streamed on the internet but shown here on You Tube. The Blaggers been as active as any band can over the last few months and we’ve enjoyed some great Live Streams from them but this one, performed for the 2020 Samhain Celtic New Year Festival, is one of the better ones regarding sound.

We’ve seen plenty of the DROPKICK MURPHYS since Paddy’s Day but each time with no one there so here’s a recently released video of their storming full set from their last tour at Zenith in Paris on the 9th of February.

Two new songs have been released by the DROPKICK MURPHYS. A cover of Darlene Love’s ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) and a new song ‘I Wish You Were Here’ are out on limited edition 7″ flexi-discs available from the Murphys store. They, unsurprisingly, have some wicked new merch available too and just in time for Christmas! At the same time it was announced that the new album will be out in mid-January.

BARBAR’O’RHUM – Pirate Des Champs

EFA SUPERTRAMP – Rhyddid yw y Freuddwyd

LQR – Barrel-Aged

PYROLYSIS – Alotsle

PENNILESS TENANTS – Lockdown Sessions (review next week!!)

Remember if you want your release featured then we have to have heard it first!

Love these daft feckers! They done the Murphys ‘Shipping Up To Boston’ a while back and now they turn their attention to The Rumjacks absolutely-mega-fecking-internet hit ‘An Irish Pub’. I’ll not go into it but sit back and have a listen and again top marks for destroying the ridiculous notion of cultural appropriation. Yes lads it is bollocks.

Life goes on and THE RUMJACKS have a brand new video out seeing them performing ‘McAlpine’s Fusiliers’ dahn an Irish pub in Milan, Italy with new vocalist Mikee from Mickey Rickshaw.

French Pirate Punkers BARBAR’O’RHUM have a new album out and also released the epic ‘Pirate Des Champs’ video. Nearly ten minutes of Pirate themed fun!

Mariner Rock, and Celtic Shenanigans, homebrewed on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. Even doing this we still come across stuff we missed from the past that is worth another look. This time we turn once again to Nova Scotia where we turn our attention to THE STAB ROVERS. Nova Scotia is home to vast amounts of Celtic folk and Celtic folk Folk bands and the area has featured here regularly. The Stab Rovers debut album came out in June, 2018 and is available as a ‘name your price’ download. The Bhoys are happily still together and looking forward to recording soon.

Now I don’t pretend to know anything about Hip-Hop and I do know what I like and here’s a couple of new releases that got me. The first video is ‘Back Around The Way’ featuring a bunch of rappers from Boston and New England including our auld favourite SLAINE and American Irish bhoy MILLYZ.

Another rapper to feature on these pages before is the Manchester born Irish D’LYFA REILLY who has a new single out available as a ‘name your price’ download. If you remember he performed with DANNY DIATRIBE on the utterly fantastic ‘Paddys Cure’. Irish immigrant Hip-Hop at its finest!

The Polish band PIJUN have released their debut release, a 5-track demo called Jigra. The band play Slavic Folk which I’m sure you’ll hear is close to Celtic in both sound and vibe.

Dutch band PYROLYSIS had to postpone their dates in England earlier in the year but have just released a mini album of six songs. They play an incredibly joyful mix of Celtic music and Folk and are still not wearing any shoes!

Swedish Celtic/ Folk/ Irish Punk-Rock band PUNK MAHONE performed a bloomin’ brilliant Live Stream on Facebook at the end of October and it has just come out on You Tube. Not to be missed!

A plug for some good friends of ours over on Facebook. The Dropkick Murphys- Fan Page and the Celtic Punk, Folk And Rock Fans are two of the best music forums on FB let alone Celtic-Punk. Ran By Fans For Fans. Just like and join in the fun!

All we need to do now is for you to help fill this page with news and remember if you are new to the London Celtic Punks blog it is easy to subscribe / follow and never miss a post. Also if anyone is interested in helping out on the reviews front then let us know via the Contact Us page.

ALBUM REVIEW: BARBAR’O’RHUM- ‘Toutes les Routes Mènent au Rhum’ (2016)

Celtic dancing music with the rhythm of whistles and pipes, the power of electric guitar, bass guitar and drums… and never without a bottle of rum!

Every time (and i mean EVERY single cotton-picking time) I see the town Toulouse mentioned I instantly start singing the Johnny Thunders penned punk rock classic ‘Born To Lose’ in my head. So its been quite hard to stay focused during this review of the debut album from the Toulouse born pirate / celtic-punkers Barbar’O’Rhum.

The idea for the band started in 2008 with Mathieu who began writing songs he hoped one day to get a band together to perform but it wasnt until 2013 that things began to move and within a short while the first incarnation of Barbar’O’Rhum was born. A couple of line-up changes later and with a strong and dedicated line-up they have managed to find time between playing every festival in France to record Toutes les Routes Mènent au Rhum (All Roads Lead To Rum) their debut album which was released on July 1st this year.

Barbar’O’Rhum from left to right: Corentin (aka Roman Ranger)- electric guitar, backing vocals * Richard (aka Rick O’Shay)- drums, backing vocals * Mathieu (aka Capitaine Barbedrut)- lead vocals, tin whistle, Irish bouzouki, gaita * Colin (aka Ange Oliver) : keyboards, backing vocals. -Jérémy (aka Edward Kidd) : bass guitar, backing vocals

Toutes les Routes Mènent au Rhum begins with ‘Bienvenue à B’O’R’ and the sound of waves crashing into rocks and slow military style drumming drum up an evocative scene in your head while accordion and bagpipes join in and soon as you get use to that ‘Coeur de l’Océan’ blasts out and is much more your typical celtic ‘punk’ fare.

I say that as it has some massive metal overtones too but without being particularly metal sounding. Like a laid back and more tuneful Alestorm. All the songs here are sung in French and Mathieu has a wonderfully strong voice that is an absolute perfect fit for this music. It doesn’t bother us one bit and if anything prefer a band to sing in their native tongue. After all what would be the point in promoting the celtic languages and then expect everyone else to sing in English! Next up is ‘La République Pirate’ and for me the album highlight. Not one of Barbar’O’Rhum’s fastest songs but the word catchy does not do it justice one bit.

The song tells the interesting tale of the Pirate Republic established at Nassau in the Bahama from 1703 to 1718. With no governor installed the sparsely settled Bahamas become a pirate haven. It was claimed there were over 1,000 pirates in Nassau and that they easily outnumbered inhabitants of the town. The pirates proclaimed Nassau a pirate republic, establishing themselves as ‘governors’. Maany famous pirates used Nassau as their base such as Charles Vane, Thomas Barrow, Benjamin Hornigold, Calico Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and the infamous Edward Teach, known as ‘Blackbeard’. The republic was smashed by 1720 and the pirates returned to plunder the sea. ‘Notre Terre’ is another standout track that again begins with waves and the lonesome sound of a tin whistle that soon enough explodes with rapid and excellent drumming into some kind of celtic-folk-metal masterpiece. This must surely be the one that gets the audience out of their chairs at live gigs I would say. Steel drum kicks off ‘Fille de Joie, Gourgandine’ and the list of instruments here just grows and grows. Keyboards, Fiddle, Electric, Bass, Tin whistle, Irish Bouzouki, Galician Bagpipe and finally drums. Don’t think I have missed anything. ‘Le Trésor Maudit de Barbe-Noire’ and ‘La Danse du Gibet continue in much the same vein with the pirate theme to the fore and the acoustic instruments put to the back and the rockier sound coming out. Next up is ‘La Véritable Histoire du Capitaine Crochet’ and one thing about Barbar’O’Rhum I can tell from listening to them is the amount of lyrics in each song. Obviously these Bhoys have a story to tell that unfortunately I cannot understand. I can hazard a guess that its tales of the sea and of pirates and death and debauchery all presented with crystal clear vocals and bloomin’ brilliant music.

We are nearing the end of our voyage with Barbar’O’Rhum and amazingly the last three songs of the album clock in at over just under twenty minutes but the energy doesn’t let up for a minute. ‘Le Hollandais Volant’ and ‘Dernière Bataille’ steer clear of any prog-rock pretensions while the album’s biggest epic song is saved to close Toutes les Routes Mènent au Rhum and ‘La Gigue du Pêcheur Pendu’ is well worthy of the word epic. Eleven songs all penned by the band themselves that comes in at a very healthy fifty-nine minutes which gives the songs plenty of time to develop and they also manage that without them becoming overblown like plenty of folk-metal bands seem to do all too easily. Barbar’O’Rhum draw their inspiration from the ocean and their songs are peppered with the sounds of ancient, and not so ancient, sea shanties and the traditional folk music of the Celtic nations. A quick look at the videos may mark them down as just a happy-go-lucky band dressing up as pirates and though I am sure they are enjoying themselves its also clear, even to myself who cannot iunderstand a word of what they are saying, that they are telling a story of days gone by while wrapping it all up in a modern style they themselves have labelled ‘Rock and Rhum!’ Long may they sail and i hope one day they set sail for London too.

(Listen to the whole of the album below on the Soundcloud player)

Buy The Album

For a CD contact the band at

barbarorhum31@gmail.com

or download from

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