SWEDISH SEA-PILLAGERS 'YE BANISHED PRIVATEERS' RELEASE 'TIL THE SEA SHALL GIVE UP HER DEAD'; A REVIEW

Ye Banished Privateers' latest album, 'Til The Sea Shall Give Up Her Dead' / Image provided by Napalm Records

Crawling straight from Davy Jones' locker and into our inbox, Ye Banished Privateers are a Swedish group that sent me on an unprecedented deep-dive into the lore of their members, their pirate pseudonyms, how many people it takes to crew a ship, and many more random factoids that only left me itching for more information.

Some of you have probably read enough of my articles by now to know that anything that sits a little outside of the boundary of the typical gets me in a vice-grip, and Ye Banished Privateers are no different. With shanties and ballads galore, Til The Sea promises to be a compilation of their finest work unlike any other.

Like the ebbing and swelling of waves, we are drawn along a story of hope and heart, fear and fright, plundering and parlaying. This journey begins with the jauntily eerie 'The Cranker', a tale of the spiralling sanity of our sailors, a devilish fiddler bewitching them with his song, then dips into the slow, haunting melody of 'Waves Away', a story of love and loss, grief and longing accompanied by beautiful vocal prowess. Then, up the wave, we rise back to 'A Final Toast for Oliver Cromwell', which I can only picture being sung in a crowded tavern to a backdrop of spilled drinks, foot-stomping and raucous applause.

The rest of the album sports everything from high-rolling songs of the bonds formed in the vast emptiness of the ocean, to long, slow tunes full of melancholy words mourning the loss of friends and freedom alike.

The layering of various vocalists above the shrills of seagulls, chants of drunk dogsbodies, and the eclectic, period-accurate instruments creates one of the most authentic soundscapes I've had the pleasure of listening to. This is no mere enactment of pirate life, this is an encapsulation of the time, the high stakes and low tides, the bustling deck of a ship and the billowing of sails, the heart and home felt among a crew of strangers bound together by their love of the open sea and it's freedom from oppression and persecution.

One track that caught my eye particularly was 'Chained Below' which, on the surface, I anticipated to be a story of those sent to the brig, or perhaps imprisoned for their piracy, but instead I was greeted with an uplifting tune that shone light into the darker spots that marred the Golden Age - slavery, colonialism, the rending apart of families and people from their homeland. These souls 'running out of air' and 'locked and shackled below' are highlighted, reminding us the listener that a life of glory and freedom comes at a price.

It was truly a treat to have this land in our emails and I will certainly be listening to their entire tracklist on repeat for many hours before I ever grow tired of hearing the cacophony of voices, instruments and clever sound effects. (Oh, Valador, if you're reading this, Ye Banished Privateers need to be the soundtrack to the airship section of our DND campaign, okay?)

Now, it's time for me to make puppy-dog eyes at my boss to see if we can go and see them in Manchester for their 2025 tour!

'Raise Your Glass', from Ye Banished Privateers' new 2025 album.

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