Listen to “Walk the Plank”, ye scallywags! Arrgh!!
London heavy metallers CUTLASS launch their new album WALK THE PLANK available today on bandcamp and NWOTHM full albums youtube channel. Their new name CUTLASS reflects the harder, sharper edge in their music, as they fuse their thrash influences to their classic metal roots. The band has been performing across the UK over the past 2 years under the name PIRATES OF METAL, promoting their CUTS FROM THE DEEP comeback EP and sharing the stage with scene leaders such as Fury, Toledo Steel and Tailgunner. CUTLASS takes the listener on a tour of their influences, from the classic heavy metal of IRON MAIDEN and JUDAS PRIEST, to the thrash of METALLICA and TESTAMENT, with a dose of melodic madness reminiscent of power metal like HELLOWEEN or RUNNING WILD.
LINE-UP
Ewan McKay – Vocals
Alistair Hodgson – Guitars
Srđan Bilić – Guitars / Bass
Milan Jejina – Drums
REVIEW
We open with the title track “Walk the Plank”, a mid-tempo affair that I found myself enjoying. The chorus in particular was a real treat, though I wasn’t quite sure if I liked the gruffness of the vocals just yet. While that hadn’t grown on me immediately, what had was the instruments and musicality of the song. The guitars are practically broadsiding with their unrelenting assault, and the bass and drums boomed out like cannon’s fire. I did find myself pleased that this was more of the serious pirate metal, and less of the jokey flavor of it (more RUNNING WILD, less ALESTORM).
“Quest for Treasure” followed, and opened with a nice melodic guitar intro that reminded me a bit of both NWOBHM and of AC/DC circa The Razor’s Edge. This one was more what I’d call a ‘crowd song’, or a ‘live song’, meaning that it lends itself to a live performance. The way that the chorus is delivered makes me want to go on some grand adventure, pillaging the Seven Seas and all of that jazz. Once more, the instruments are a real standout, with a hell of a guitar solo to boot, but the vocals worked for me much more in this one.
“Buried at Sea” was our third offering, and the shortest on the album at just under 3 minutes. It was a right proper thrasher to start off, and the RUNNING WILD influence was felt strongly, especially their earlier stuff. Now that breakdown about 2/3 of the way through the track was some masterful stuff, hard not to bob the head along with it. Being the shortest of the eight tracks felt both equal parts stunted and breezy, but I leaned more toward the latter.
“Blood in the Water” was next up, and what I’ll use to split the album into two parts. Once more, some great speed metal opened this one up, but with some killer little melodic licks here and there. This was another that the vocals just worked for me, but the real highlight of the track came just after the two minute mark, with another breakdown that felt like a true cannonade. The way the chunky riffs managed to instantly make me think of cannons firing off was perfect. Good stuff.
“The Kraken” was track five, and much like the scene in Pirates of the Caribbean when the titular Kraken attacks, it’s awesome. There’s just something about a gargantuan octopus thing that is always cool, regardless of how it’s presented. While the track opened with a SLAYER reminiscent riff, and was mostly an aggressive output, the surprisingly melodic solo was a wonderful treat. It was thus far, my favorite solo on the album.
“We Came for the Battle (We Stayed for the Beer)” had an appropriately jaunty groove to it, in comparison to the rest of the album up to this point. While on the shorter side, this was a perfect drinking song. The chorus where multiple of the band members sing along was a cherry on top, and became super easy to visualize just singing this with one’s mates amidst a great party on the deck of your sloop.
“No Escape” was one that didn’t really connect with me, despite the admittedly awesome guitar solo nearish to the end. On top of that, the drumming was really spectacular here, but for some reason it wasn’t hitting for me. Different strokes for different folks and all of that. Really, the final 30 seconds to a minute was almost enough to sway me over.
“Blood for Gold” was our final voyage with CUTLASS, and was also the longest track on the album at a few seconds over 6 minutes. We have entered token power ballad territory (WOO!). The rhythms were slow and melodic, and the bits of shredding in front of them were magnificent, working off of each other perfectly. This was a great way to close out an already strong record, not even mentioning the amazing solo in this one.
CONCLUSION
This was a fun surprise! Pirate metal can be 50/50 for me sometimes, as it’s all on how the band chooses to present themselves and how absurd their lyrics can be. That being said CUTLASS is definitely on the stronger and more serious side of pirate metal, but they still have some levity here and there. On top of the album clocking in at just under 35 minutes, this was a blast to listen to. My only real nitpick is just that, a nitpick, I would’ve liked a bit more variety and experimentation. At times, it felt a like it was being played safe, which CUTLASS are good at, but again just a nitpick.
TheNWOTHM Score: 8/10
CUTLASS’ “Walk the Plank” released on 19 September, 2024
The Nwothm 
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