I was contacted directly by a member of the band Shtack to do a review of his pirate metal band.Extremely interested, I decided to tackle the review of a genre I had never really delved into before and hit up Spotify to check out some music from The Netherlands.
I was immediately intrigued by band’s sound. Their self-titled album is a brilliant example of the epic style of Viking meets Pirate. The songs have an excellent use of melody and everyone in the band is proficient with their instruments. The keyboard arrangements are fantastic and the vocals mix well, nothing very clean but definitely a perfect chorus meets guttural. The drums could use more double bass but then again, double bass drums all day equals the plus side to any song. The songs overall are symphonic and hold nothing back.
I can’t really tell what’s in English and what isn’t, but I didn’t feel like that mattered to me at all because the band does an excellent job of capturing the sound of metal and setting it loose upon your ears. The production of the album sounds clean and professional (I later found out after listening that the band did all the recording themselves and it took nearly a year to do, so major kudos to the members of Shtack for a job well done).
My final words on the album, the band and the songs: If you’re not into this type of music, you should be, because this band is awesome. Shtack has talent and is a band worth checking out. The album is a good mix of music and songwriting and you will not be plagued with boredom. My hopes for these guys are that they are able to market themselves appropriately and build a worldwide audience, they have the potential to be a huge international act.
My rating: 9 out of 10!
Fun Fact: Sjtek (the band’s name, Shtack) means stick. “It refers to the high heels a "Barbie" looking girl wore during our secondary school time, which we rejected. Rejection against those kind of women where sung on several songs on our album.” – Thimo Gijezen of Shtack
Stevie Kopas, HMS
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