OK, I’ve lived in Jersey for decades and never heard of Swashbuckle, who suddenly appear on one of the world’s premier metal labels. What gives? Actually, they’re the winners of NB’s global Myspace contest. While many people have been fleeced, robbed and mobsters get “taken for a ride” in New Jersey, the miles of oceanic coastline have little in common with pirates. Timing is everything, and with Running Wild, the world’s leading buccaneer-based band lowering their Jolly Roger, there’s a void (?) to fill, if not for Alestorm already usurping some of the glory.

Unlike the Scots nor Germans, Swashbuckle play goofy thrash, nearly indistinguishable lyrics (which is part of the motif’s fun, isn’t it?), with the occasional punk/skate slowdown. Sort of like they were half-serious retro-thrashers (Rumpelstiltskin Grinder?) and to separate themselves from the countless others that have come before, adopted the pirate angle. S.O.D. with an eye patch, if you will. 21 tracks all told, but most are less than 90 seconds long: intros, segues, in jokes or in the case of ‘Cloudy With A Chance Of Piracy’, completely instrumental. Only “It Came From The Deep” and “Scurvy Back” crack three minutes. This is why you don’t guarantee a contract (regardless of ability) to contest winners through something as unproven/un-musically friendly as the Internet.