Swashbuckle - Crime Always Pays...

Crime Always Pays from the very gifted talent, Swashbuckle, again proves that humor and heavy can go hand in hand.  I don’t buy into gimmicks - but I’m glad that Swashbuckle has one, because any way that these men can get more of a draw is a great idea.  Fans of thrash, death, speed, and pirates will love this album, and love this band.

I can’t out funny Swashbuckle, so I won’t try.  While their humor is doused all over this album with tracks like “Raw Doggin”, their technical work and chops are as well.  What you don’t know from titles alone is how skilled these guys are, and how intelligent their writing is. “This Round is on You,” sets the tone for the rest of the album in both attitude and tone.  Swashbuckle is like a good-looking chic; they know that they have it, and that’s why you are paying.

While it’s safe to say that Swashbuckle is thrash metal, they definitely have influences that are drawn from death metal, punk, and hardcore.  This album’s vocals and music are so ferocious from start to finish they had to put in delicate guitar breaks in between songs to give you a break.  “Of Hooks & Hornswoggles” is a great example, and it’s hard to believe that you are listening to the same brutal band that only a few minutes before was playing an incredibly curt, succinct, sharp slap in the face called “Powder Keg.”  It’s the slow breaks in the album that makes this album feel a lot longer then it actually was.  The effect of fast then slow then faster speed is satisfaction.  Swashbuckle knows how to take you for a sweet ride.  “The Gallow’s Pole Dancer,” is another shining example of what happens with Swashbuckle humor and Swashbuckle’s “grizzly bear mauling a camp” sound, fuse together.

While there are other bands out there who try to say that they are thrash metal, I think it’s because they have no idea what thrash metal is.  Music is about progress, and you have to move forward.  Swashbuckle takes an old theme, and a genre that flourished nearly 30 years ago and they infuse it with what they have seen in other sub genres of metal.  Swashbuckle doesn’t turn a blind eye to contemporary metal; they embrace it and introduce good ideas, themes, and overall sound.  The reason why Swashbuckle stands heads over their contemporaries is that they realize that you can’t exist in a vacuum.  They pick, choose and establish their own ideas of a lot of metal to make their own sound.  Is it thrash? Yes, but because of their approach it’s individual and not some repeat - it’s Swashbuckle.  This album is my favorite so far, and I can’t wait to hear more, because Swashbuckle knows, in every way, exactly what they are doing.

Release Date: September 10, 2010
Label: Nuclear Blast Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Slowly Wept the Sea
2.  We are the Storm
3.  This Round's on YOU!
4.  Powder Keg
5.  Where Victory is Penned
6.  Of Hooks and Hornswogglers
7.  A Time of Wooden Ships &
     Iron Men
8.  Crime Always Pays
9.  Raw Doggin' at the Raw Bar
10.  The Gallow's Pole Dancer
11.  Legacy's Allure
12.  At the Bottom of a Glass
13.  To Steal a Life
14.  You Bring the Cannon,
        We'll Bring the Balls
15.  Surf-N-Turf (For Piratical Girth)
16.  Rope's End

Total playing time:  53:03

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*Comments:

Reviewer: Lynora

January 9, 2011