Album Review: Flogging Molly – Anthem

Action and Celebration with Purpose

Irish rock band Flogging Molly has been making Celtic music cool for over 20 years now. With the release of their seventh studio album, frontman Dave King described it as the group going back to basics. Nevertheless, Anthem is a powerful anthem for Irish heritage, folklore and camaraderie. When talking with Spin Magazine, King said “a great anthem is inclusive and gives people a sense of belonging… After the pandemic we wanted to create something with a sense of camaraderie.” Certainly at times the rhythmic drumming can make one start to march in time or sail on the open sea. 

While unable to confine them to one genre, Flogging Molly encompasses traits of rock, punk, folk music and many more. On the folk end of the spectrum, many of the songs feature classic instruments to Irish heritage and culture, such as the tin flute, the Bodhrán drum, bagpipes and banjos. This is also the first album the group has recorded with Spencer Swain, their banjo player. King has in the past claimed inspiration from Irish musicians such as the Dubliners, who themselves are a large musical group with a variety of traditional instruments and a deep hoarse voice as the lead vocals. The album discusses political themes and ideas, including their stance on anti-authoritarianism and overreaching structures as well as a celebration of the working class who built this world. 

Flogging Molly writes and performs from an Irish perspective, but solidarity is not bound by country. The band collaborated with Ukrainian animators to create the music video for their second track “A Song of Liberty.” The song is about the sacrifices of Irish Republicans in the 1916 Easter Rising against the British rule of Ireland. The rising was bloody and did not end well for the revolutionaries, but it led to Irish independence and Flogging Molly uses the story as a rallying call for pride. And by connecting the Easter rising to the conflict in Ukraine, it symbolizes the similarities of living through political violence through different centuries. It is not just camaraderie as King suggested, but an opportunity to commiserate as a group as well.