Skull & Bones - The Cursed Island (2014)
Skull & Bones - The Cursed Island (2014)
EAC | Flac(Image) + Cue + Log & MP3 CBR 320Kbps
Independent Label | ~ 289 or 92 Mb | Artwork(jpg) -> 32 Mb
Epic Power Metal, Folk Metal
EAC | Flac(Image) + Cue + Log & MP3 CBR 320Kbps
Independent Label | ~ 289 or 92 Mb | Artwork(jpg) -> 32 Mb
Epic Power Metal, Folk Metal
Ever since Running Wild began to slide after their The Rivalry album, fans had been clamoring for a return to form and even after their reunion, things still hadn’t been quite fully back up to par yet. But a Swedish band named Blazon Stone sailed into the port with their fabulous Return to Port Royal album that emulated Rock’n’Rolf’s sound, just way better and more energetic than the original and now Argentina is throwing in a candidate for the “I sound more like Running Wild than Running Wild” contest in the form of Buenos Aires-based quintet Skull & Bones and their debut album The Cursed Island.
With pirate themed bands rapidly gaining popularity (Running Wild, Blazon Stone, Alestorm, Verbal Deception, Swashbuckle etc), the Argentinians have all the prerequisites to deliver a journey back in time and while sporting 13 tracks, The Cursed Island actually has five instrumentals on offer, which dilutes the 39 minutes a little. While not showing heaps of originality (*end of understatement*), Skull & Bones live off their catchiness, energy and good choruses, the piraty lyrics and overall atmosphere and they do a pretty good job with it.
That being said, not all is golden doubloons that glitter around here, for there are a few issues with The Cursed Island after all. One point of contention will be the vocals of Franco Tempesta, but not really for being a weak vocalist, but rather for being in the unenviable position of not sounding like Rock’n’Rolf. While reviewers usually complain about a band not having enough of a character of its own, but if their sound is that close to one of metal’s longest standing members, it is difficult not to come to expect that similar sound pretty much in every aspect of the album, right?
After the moody intro “Admiral Benbow Inn”, Skull & Bones kick their Running Wild homage off with “The Chest of Billy Bones” and upbeat, catchy, good choirs, not original, but well done, a theme that threads throughout The Cursed Island, be it galloping “Ready for Quest”, the mid-era RW sounding duo of intro “Set Sail!” and song “Rum for the Crew” (where the verse reminds me a lot of a particular song of the Hamburg-based pirates, but I cannot put my finger on which one, if my life depended on it…) or catchy “Long John Silver”, complete with ohoho chorus.
While the instrumentals actually fit surprisingly well into the album context (love the organ of “The Hispaniola”, for example), some of the later songs don’t quite keep up with the rest, mostly “Powder & Guns” and “Treachery March”, which while not necessarily bad, lack some spark and spirit.
One thing you should not forget is that The Cursed Island is a debut, so there’s obviously still room for improvement, but overall Skull & Bones’ first effort is an entertaining album that should appeal to fans of Running Wild and Blazon Stone. Yarr, mateys!by Alex Melzer, metal-observer.com
Skull & Bones - The Cursed Island (2014)
Skull & Bones - The Cursed Island (2014)):
Skull & Bones - The Cursed Island (2014)
Tracklist:
01. Admiral Benbow Inn
02. The Chest Of Billy Bones
03. The Hispaniola
04. Ready For Quest
05. Set Sail!
06. Rum For The Crew
07. Anthem For The Buccaneer
08. Long John Silver
09. Skeleton Island
10. Powder & Guns
11. Death & Treasure
12. Treachery March
13. Captain Flint's Booty
Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011
EAC extraction logfile from 12. March 2014, 23:11
Skull & Bones / The Cursed Island
Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GH22NS50 Adapter: 3 ID: 1
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 667
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 32 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : Yes
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 1:55.71 | 0 | 8695
2 | 1:55.71 | 3:42.50 | 8696 | 25395
3 | 5:38.46 | 1:26.73 | 25396 | 31918
4 | 7:05.44 | 2:56.26 | 31919 | 45144
5 | 10:01.70 | 1:51.06 | 45145 | 53475
6 | 11:53.01 | 5:23.45 | 53476 | 77745
7 | 17:16.46 | 0:49.56 | 77746 | 81476
8 | 18:06.27 | 4:34.72 | 81477 | 102098
9 | 22:41.24 | 0:56.55 | 102099 | 106353
10 | 23:38.04 | 3:20.53 | 106354 | 121406
11 | 26:58.57 | 3:44.21 | 121407 | 138227
12 | 30:43.03 | 3:51.35 | 138228 | 155587
13 | 34:34.38 | 4:11.02 | 155588 | 174414
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename D:\MUSIC\Rivfader\Skull & Bones - The Cursed Island.wav
Peak level 99.9 %
Extraction speed 1.7 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC C596EA93
Copy CRC C596EA93
Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
Track 1 not present in database
Track 2 not present in database
Track 3 not present in database
Track 4 not present in database
Track 5 not present in database
Track 6 not present in database
Track 7 not present in database
Track 8 not present in database
Track 9 not present in database
Track 10 not present in database
Track 11 not present in database
Track 12 not present in database
Track 13 not present in database
None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
End of status report
–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.3
[CTDB TOCID: .CIqvcghpRKi6f.RDbZT1.nPv28-] found, Submit result: .CIqvcghpRKi6f.RDbZT1.nPv28- has been confirmed
[685e3a0d] (1/1) Accurately ripped
==== Log checksum 48EBCBA8CAC1092D0E392B39DBC9B45E1B7B63EAD659B200AA185D558AEBA50F ====
EAC extraction logfile from 12. March 2014, 23:11
Skull & Bones / The Cursed Island
Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GH22NS50 Adapter: 3 ID: 1
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 667
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 32 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : Yes
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 1:55.71 | 0 | 8695
2 | 1:55.71 | 3:42.50 | 8696 | 25395
3 | 5:38.46 | 1:26.73 | 25396 | 31918
4 | 7:05.44 | 2:56.26 | 31919 | 45144
5 | 10:01.70 | 1:51.06 | 45145 | 53475
6 | 11:53.01 | 5:23.45 | 53476 | 77745
7 | 17:16.46 | 0:49.56 | 77746 | 81476
8 | 18:06.27 | 4:34.72 | 81477 | 102098
9 | 22:41.24 | 0:56.55 | 102099 | 106353
10 | 23:38.04 | 3:20.53 | 106354 | 121406
11 | 26:58.57 | 3:44.21 | 121407 | 138227
12 | 30:43.03 | 3:51.35 | 138228 | 155587
13 | 34:34.38 | 4:11.02 | 155588 | 174414
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename D:\MUSIC\Rivfader\Skull & Bones - The Cursed Island.wav
Peak level 99.9 %
Extraction speed 1.7 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC C596EA93
Copy CRC C596EA93
Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
Track 1 not present in database
Track 2 not present in database
Track 3 not present in database
Track 4 not present in database
Track 5 not present in database
Track 6 not present in database
Track 7 not present in database
Track 8 not present in database
Track 9 not present in database
Track 10 not present in database
Track 11 not present in database
Track 12 not present in database
Track 13 not present in database
None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
End of status report
–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.3
[CTDB TOCID: .CIqvcghpRKi6f.RDbZT1.nPv28-] found, Submit result: .CIqvcghpRKi6f.RDbZT1.nPv28- has been confirmed
[685e3a0d] (1/1) Accurately ripped
==== Log checksum 48EBCBA8CAC1092D0E392B39DBC9B45E1B7B63EAD659B200AA185D558AEBA50F ====
[CUETools log; Date: 16.01.2019 11:22:29; Version: 2.1.4]
[AccurateRip ID: 00111e9a-00ae06ae-9009150d] found.
Track [ CRC | V2 ] Status
01 [87c11a9c|fa23b6b4] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
02 [5b734066|c2178c04] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
03 [c971c5dc|5faf74ad] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
04 [c0439e21|47153dee] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
05 [656474a7|badfca75] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
06 [607e837b|408c021d] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
07 [a40ee779|83228b62] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
08 [33eb35a0|a1e3170a] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
09 [6d157408|b9e72851] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
10 [c851c90e|f56bc251] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
11 [15fb6969|00db1ac0] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
12 [b1295ea0|c1774d22] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
13 [8a528616|c3e671b3] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
Track Peak [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ]
– 99,9 [C596EA93] [49835125] CRC32
01 99,9 [1D294102] [38EA1F2F]
02 99,9 [917CA3E7] [0A89A854]
03 99,9 [486C4550] [03277C12]
04 99,9 [32780C17] [839F09A9]
05 99,9 [74F9A2D0] [D24012ED]
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09 99,9 [2471BB4A] [ADDC7150]
10 99,0 [7F672DAB] [C7CD850D]
11 99,9 [05095770] [C3755EA2]
12 99,9 [180A34F7] [A1821E5F]
13 99,9 [BE29042B] [21ABEB11]
[AccurateRip ID: 00111e9a-00ae06ae-9009150d] found.
Track [ CRC | V2 ] Status
01 [87c11a9c|fa23b6b4] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
02 [5b734066|c2178c04] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
03 [c971c5dc|5faf74ad] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
04 [c0439e21|47153dee] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
05 [656474a7|badfca75] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
06 [607e837b|408c021d] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
07 [a40ee779|83228b62] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
08 [33eb35a0|a1e3170a] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
09 [6d157408|b9e72851] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
10 [c851c90e|f56bc251] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
11 [15fb6969|00db1ac0] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
12 [b1295ea0|c1774d22] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
13 [8a528616|c3e671b3] (0+1/1) Accurately ripped
Track Peak [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ]
– 99,9 [C596EA93] [49835125] CRC32
01 99,9 [1D294102] [38EA1F2F]
02 99,9 [917CA3E7] [0A89A854]
03 99,9 [486C4550] [03277C12]
04 99,9 [32780C17] [839F09A9]
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11 99,9 [05095770] [C3755EA2]
12 99,9 [180A34F7] [A1821E5F]
13 99,9 [BE29042B] [21ABEB11]
Skull & Bones - The Cursed Island (2014)
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