Hailing from Eastern Scotland, Alestorm got their start in 2004 as Battleheart, a power metal band that wrote songs about aircraft. Following a mix-up where someone heard “pirates” instead of “pilots”, they recorded the wildly successful song Heavy Metal Pirates in 2006 and decided to permanently adopt the swashbuckling theme.
In 2007, the band were signed to Napalm Records and changed their name to Alestorm. A year later, their debut album Captain Morgan’s Revenge was released featuring the lead single Heavy Metal Pirates.
Alestorm’s sophomore album Black Sails At Midnight arrived in 2009. Their third album Back Through Time followed a year later and they supported it with a world tour. At this time, Alestorm began to evolve into an international party machine on a voyage to conquer album charts and festival stages with their songs about getting drunk and stealing ships.
In 2014, their fourth record Sunset On The Golden Age was released and reached No.1 on the UK rock albums chart. They followed that up with 2017’s No Grave But The Sea and it peaked at No.1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart.
The band embarked on a huge UK and Ireland road trip in 2018 dubbed Piratefest, and then went on to storm international venues with it in 2019.
Over the years, Alestorm’s line-up has changed greatly, but has settled into a quintet that includes lead vocalist and keytarist Christopher Bowes, guitarist Máté Bodor, bassist Gareth Murdock, drummer Peter Alcorn and keyboardist Elliot Vernon.
They released their seventh album Curse Of The Crystal Coconut in May 2020 featuring the singles Tortuga, Treasure Chest Party Quest, Fannybaws and Pirate Metal Drinking Crew. In March 2021, Alestorm confirmed a UK tour for November and December 2021 to support it.
Alestorm are touring the UK throughout February and March.
