Valkyrian Music

Rumahoy
Yarr Demo
Released: 15^th August
Trve Scottish Pirate Metal/Heritagecore
Self-Released

Hailing from the apparent ancient fishing village Auchtermuchty (which is shown as being inland on Google Maps), come Scotland’s finest (and probably only) heritagecore outfit Rumahoy. Dubbing themselves as the first and original Scottish pirate metal band, the quartet formed in 2010 and released a song entitled Blackbeard’s Mighty Treasure which when down well in Scotland’s underground metals scene, as I’m told. With very little information about the floating around on the seven seas of the internet, I couldn’t help but think this was some sort of elaborate hoax but the demo was passed onto me by a trusted contact and the demo does indeed contain four genuine, if somewhat, tongue in cheek tracks.

Oceans of Treasures begins with the alluring sound of the tides coming back and forth before a soothing use of acoustic guitars and drums sail onwards before the track takes a turn down the heavier tides of the track. The riffs are genuinely and intelligently performed while the vocals (and lyrics) seem to bring about the tongue-in-cheek sound, mixing cheesily deep clean vocals with screams. The use of folk instrumentation sallies forth a folky and pirate sound, making it almost Celtic.

Digging For Rum rushes in with a strong thrash sound, which is soon found sailing alongside a more folk orientated sound however the clean, deep vocals really do put me off from wanting to listen to this track again. Questing Upon the High Seas makes up for the previous track, to an extent, bring some really epic passages and poignant lyrics though the vocals are pretty much like marmite. The samples (which I’m assuming are taken from different pirate films) really add a unique sound to the song. The keyboards add some truly dark sounding voyages to the song, especially when the harsher vocals make a proper appearance after a sample taken from Pirates of the Caribbean.

The demo ends with the black metalesque piece that is Ahoy, Wenches! To be honest, I expected it sound more folky and like a drinking song but the dark, almost evil screams of the guitars work well. The vocals ring in a similar vein to early 90s Bathory, adding a slight but distinct epic part to the track.

I’m really in two minds about this release; the overall musicianship screams out with a serious metal vibe while the vocals and lyrics make it almost… Like a joke. If you’re not too fussed about lyrics that are bursting with cheese then Yarr Demo is definitely something to get your hands on to place in your treasure trove of metal. The release is enjoyable enough though it is let down in areas by the vocals.

3/5

Nico Davidson

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This entry was posted on 27th August 2012 at 11:16 pm and is filed under Review with tags Auchtermuchty, Bathory, Demo (music), Heavy metal music, Rumahoy, Scotland, Self-publishing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.