From Leeds, UK, comes a band of jolly friends, who've taken the Pirate Metal theme and gave it a completely new musical outlook, which differs quite from what Power Metal acts such as Running Wild, and more recently Alestorm and Swashbuckle have delivered. Indeed, the main influences SBP uses come from Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Manowar. In other words, Traditional Heavy Metal (with progressive leanings).
Formed in March of 2007, SBP first recorded and released a two-track demo entitled A Small Sample Of The Booty, and then exploded onto the local scene in the area of Leeds in September with a show which was to see the band members [lead singer Captain One-Ayed Wilson, guitarists Scarve-V-Knave and Fradders The Cabin Boy, bassist Dread Pirate Duncan (also a member of Death-Thrash Metal act Endless Torment) and drummer Davey Blast-Bastard (whom also provides the occasional synth sounds, at least on recordings)] perform on stage in full pirate outfit (including eye-patch in the case of the singer – hence his surname, ya knows!?). Building a local reputation, the band eventually self-released its debut album The Legend Of Salty Jim in February 2009, and got critical praise came from UK's leading magazine Kerrang! (who gave the album no less than 4 “K's”), Zero Tolerance, Firewaorks Magazine and Metal-Rules.com. SBP then took to the road, promoting the album in venues up and down the UK, not only playing seconds to the crème-de-la-crème in British Metal, but also to more international acts such as Finntroll, Tyr, and (the already mentioned) Alestorm. But in the past 5 years, there have also been a couple of lesser things happening to the band, with two of the crew suffering broken bones, which translated in a total loss of two years. Thus strong are the bonds of friendship between the musicians, that they would not perform with others, not even on a temporary basis! Hence also, you know, the title of the new album. With An Oath Sworn On Broken Bones, the guys hope to convince a decent label into signing the band, so that our hearty pirates will be able to conquer other territory outside the UK.
Now, if you can imagine the music of Iron Maiden being crossed to that of Judas Priest and Manowar (it's really as simple as that, although of course the equations are not always equal) with raunchy singing on top, which are also frequently brought as “gang” vocals...then you have somewhat of an idea of what SBP might sound like : pummeling melodies with nice progressive leanings atop which thematic lyrics are balked, to put things simply. But that things are not at all simple, you might discover for yourselves when checking out the couple f songs made available from the debut album at (www.) myspace.com/skullbrandedpirates. At (www.) reverbnation.com/skullbrandedpirates, you'll find two other songs off the debut, plus a threesome of tracks off the new album (same songs can also be found on the band's facebook page, alongside a total of 8 videos). The band also has a site of its own (www.) skullbrandedpirates.com, but at the moment I checked it was being overhauled, with handy links to the aforementioned pages (as well as the band's twitter).
Check it out, get charmed, and order that album. If you know someone in “the business”, go harass 'em until they actually listen to what fine tunes these Leeds lads have on offer!