Pirate metal

Pirate Metal is a tag applied to the Heavy metal bands who feature Pirate theme in their lyrics and music. Pirate metal tag does not imply pirate-themed bands form a genre. Nevertheless, most of them usually play a sort of Folk metal and/or Power metal. Edit this Artist photo: Tarkan

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Music tagged “pirate metal”

Built by 2,770 people (Used 5,890 times)

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McTague97

First time I've heard of any of these bands. With the exception of Alestorm who I only heard about because someone told me they were like Amon Amarth. Some of these bands have nothing in common exceppt a gimmick and lyrical content. How is this a 'genre' you might as well make a war metal genre and a torture metal genre.

last month
Denprime

Well, maybe you're right in regard of the marketing, I didn't realy think about it. The market for pirate-related bands doesn't seem to be that big, you know, with only 3 majorly known bands with that gimmick. But a tag as it is simply exist to help find themed bands. As to why I think Alestorm is the most pirate-like it's because they use melodies and progressions associated with the pirate-related pop culture, such as Pirate of the Carribean movies and Cid Meier's Pirates! So they kinda expand their gimmick to the music as well. That's what I originally intended to get across )

last month
super_ruben09

I simply addressed some shouts before mine. Egyptian metal: Built by 47 people (Used 67 times), party thrash: Built by 36 people (Used 60 times). Pirate metal however: Built by 2,770 people (Used 5,890 times). And my problem with them is that they don't say anything about the music and are (in some cases) pure marketing ploys. After Alestorm successfully made their pirate gimmick work other labels jumped on to cash in. Nuclear Blast picked up Swashbuckle (who had gotten nowhere in their 4 years of existence because their music is really mediocre) and really started pushing them, even giving one of the members a segment on their official youtube channel. And when labels start picking up mediocre and bad bands to cash in rather than trying to support the actual metal genre, that's a problem. For me, at least.

last month
Denprime

Then I don't get the point of you coming in this shoutbox saying how much you like RW and how much Alestorm sucks. Also Nile totally has "egyptian metal" tag, and Municipal Waste is tagged, among other things, as "party thrash". And Ex Deo has something about roman whatever. That are all gimmicks. Nobody even suggests otherwise, so what seems to be a problem?

March 2013
super_ruben09

So? Does that mean I have to think it's a legitimate tag? Calling Alestorm and Running Wild pirate metal is as useless as calling Nile Egyptian metal or Municipal Waste party metal. All it describes is the lyrical themes. The average Alestorm fan won't be interested in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53A4GyB96RI . What's the point of a tag if the bands classified under it are this drastically different? I'm just trying to understand why people even bother with it.

March 2013
Denprime

Well, we're having this conversation in the "pirate metal" tag shoutbox, aren't we? As in "not a genre definition, but a kind of gimmick pirate metal"

March 2013
super_ruben09

I never called anyone pirate metal. Pirate metal isn't a legitimate genre. Running Wild plays power/heavy metal, Alestorm plays power/folk metal, Swashbuckle plays death/thrash metal, etc. How could the music be pirate centred? What's a 'pirate vibe? Pirates didn't make any music. Why do you consider Alestorm more pirate-y than Running Wild? Because they have folk elements? That just makes them folk metal. There is no definitive 'pirate vibe', that's just as subjective as which band is better. If you cut off Alestorm's lyrics entirely they would be nothing more than just power/folk metal. Lyrical themes don't define genres.

March 2013
Denprime

Ok, will you still be able to call RW "pirate metal" if they cut off the lyrics entirely? Or do they suddenly become just heavy-power stuff? The question is not who's the better band (witch is subjective anyway), but who have the most pirate vibe to their songs. And I don't think gimmicks a bad thing.

March 2013