The relation between Heavy Metal and alcoholic drinks is old, and the Brazilian extreme Metal lords of SARCÓFAGO created a song called “Sex, Drinks and Metal” to pay homage to it. Obviously that the most famous (and infamous) name of ‘Alcoholic Metal’ is the German quartet TANKARD, but as good ideas are always being passed from a generation to the following one, here the North American quartet DRUNKELWEIZEN is here with their homage to booze with “Pioneers of Alcohol”, their first full-length.

The band plays a form of Folk Metal mixed with Heavy Metal, as a drunken version of acts as KORPIKLAANI, but without all the traditional Folk musical instruments, being based solely on vocals, guitars, bass guitar and drums, with many good ideas being spewed on their songs, with fine melodies and ambiences, and great doses of energy. But the band needs to sharp their efforts a bit more. It’s obvious that they enjoy to have fun, but their music lacks some coherence sometimes, seems dispersive. The sonority is a huge problem. It’s not a loss, you can understand clearly what’s being played and what’s being expressed, but their music needs something refined to fit in their musical ideas. It’s not to overload things and create a super-production, but something better, because their music needs it.

Musically speaking, the ideas shown by these drunken guys are excellent, with charming contrasts between Heavy Metal and Folk Metal influences, as heard on “Robinhood of Moonshine” (the contrasts between the tunes on the vocals shows very good potential), “Draining the Cask” (very good guitars, indeed, with funny Folk moments), “St. Brigid”, “Pioneers of Alcohol” (bass guitar and drums working on a very good way, especially when some blast beats appear), “Ein Frosch”, and “FML”, but they must set things in a better way. It’s not bad, but could be way better.

For now, DRUNKELWEIZEN is welcome to the scene, and “Pioneers of Alcohol” depicts a band with a huge potential to be turned into music. Maybe it’s a matter of drinking some beers to adjust things.