Tag Archives: Black Anemone

ALBUM REVIEW: BLACK ANEMONE- ‘Chasing The Sun’ (2020)

Album Review, Sweden June 17, 2020 1 Comment

Celtic-Punk band from Sweden Black Anemone bring even more chaos and mischief to the world with the release of their new album, Chasing the Sun. One of the harder bands in Celtic-Punk to pigeonhole they may draw from the likes of Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys but combine with their own influences to great effect.

Black Anemone have used the power of social media to become one of the better known bands in the Celtic-Punk scene over the last few years. Always there with a supportive comment they have truly embraced the idea of #onecelticpunkfamily to their hearts. Chasing The Sun is the bands third full length studio album and so far they have all been received favourably by the various Celtic-Punk media and even outside, especially with their well produced and clever videos. Coming as they do from very near the river Lagan (not that one but the one in Jönköping in southern Sweden!) it may be no surprise the rocky road these young Scandinavians have taken.

Formed in 2010 and still at school when future vocalist Mattias came up with the idea of mixing “traditional folk music, mostly Irish trad and fusing it with Punk-Rock” and having recruited longtime friends Andy on guitar and Adam on drums they began rehearsals and others soon joined to fill in the gaps. Their first release was a demo the following year and later an EP titled Let The Freak-Show Begin’. In the later part of 2011 Black Anemone started working on their first full length album that would eventually come out in 2013. The album, King Of Kings won several local awards including ‘Best Act’ in their region and would appear in most of that years Celtic-Punk media’s Best Of’s. It would be four years till they followed this up with In It For Life as sadly, in common with a lot of Celtic-Punk bands, line up changes always seem to come at the most awkward moment. It was the first music we had heard of theirs are we were suitably impressed with their “combination of folk and punk and folkpunk all underpinned with the trad sounds of Ireland”.

Opening with the first single from the album ‘Straight Back To Hell’ and its straight into what Black Anemone are best at. Lively, cheering Pop-Punky tunes as catchy as the hell their going straight back to! The video below is a perfect example of their art too. Not showy or overstated but works amazingly well and makes a change from the ‘band playing in a pub’ scenario.

The album takes several twists and turns and they tune on the Gaelic for ‘Drinking On A Sunday’ perhaps the most Irish sounding here. Needless to say its a corker and keeps up the lively approach of the opening song even time for a ‘slapyourhands/stampyourfeet’ interlude. ‘Voices From Bones’ begins with fiddle and banjo standing out while Mattias has a strong voice for both the rocky and more contemplative moments while unsurprisingly able to sing in perfect English. One my favourites here and at four and a half minutes it doesn’t drag its feet either. ‘Scream Of A Banshee’ showcases Stina’s amazing fiddle playing in a song with plenty of ‘Woaaaa’. The first slow track rolls in next sounding for all the world like a off cut from Rum, Sodomy And The Lash. While not quite a ballad ‘Letter To Lorelei’ is slow but still heavy and its Irish core leads nicely into ‘Templehouse Session’ where the Bhoys and Ghirls blast through 160 seconds of brilliantly played fast trad Irish folk. I love it when bands pull this pout of the bag proving to the Irish music snobs purists that Celtic-Punk is more than just songs about drinking and fighting. The same snobs purists were saying the same things in the 1960’s about The Dubliners! Title track ‘Chasing The Sun’ was the albums second single and coming out post-clampdown meant whatever idea they had for the video had to changed but they still manged to come up with something novel that looks great. Accordionist Fredrik takes over on vocals and while he may have the look of a Death-Metal head his voice is achingly tender.

Time now for that ballad and ‘The Willow Creek’ delivers it with gusto. Again its not a gentle thing. Instruments are pounded and the swirl is large. At near five minutes long it does well to fly past so quickly. Definitely a song for holding your pint up to the stage and clinging on to those you love and trust the most. Nearing the end now and ‘Wanderlust’ takes us back into Celtic-Punk territory again while ‘Far Away’ brings down the curtain on a thoroughly enjoyable forty odd minutes of original music.

Black Anemone from left to right: Stina – Fiddle * Andreas – Guitar * Fredrik – Accordion * Mattias – Lead Vocals * Rickard – Bass * Martin – Banjo/Mandolin * Adam – Drums *

Chasing The Sun came out on May Day it was recorded at Distmaskinen, mixed by Alexander Gabara and mastered by Ulf Blomberg. The sound is excellent and very clear and for a band with so many members that is some achievement. Celtic-Punk when played in the right spirit should be a joyous affair (even taking into account the rather dark subject matter of some of the scene’s most popular themes!) and on the evidence here Black Anemone have nailed it yet again.

(stream or download Chasing The Sun from the Bandcamp player below)

Download Chasing The Sun FromTheBand

Contact Black Anemone  Bandcamp  Facebook  Instagram  YouTube  Twitter

They got together in early May to play an acoustic Live Stream on Facebook so have a listen. Its just over a hour long and shows this band have a real talent for Irish Folk music. 

ODDS’N’SODS. CELTIC-PUNK ROUND UP MAY 2020

Odds'n'Sods April 30, 2020 Leave a comment

There has been a huge gap in the Celtic-Punk scene since the sad demise of the Celtic Folk Punk And More web-zine so in an attempt to make ourselves useful and fill it we’re starting a new regular monthly feature here. All news items that we otherwise miss will get a mention but I need YOU to be the eyes and ears if it’s going to work so send over to us any band news, record releases, videos, tours (not individual gigs though yet), live streams, crowd funders etc., to us at londoncelticpunks@hotmail.co.uk or through the Contact Us page and it will go in here!

 

The best Celtic-Punk album I have heard yet in 2020 has been the debut long player from Norway’s OGRAS and they have a new video out featuring Children Of Dust a standout track from their recently reviewed album No Love In The City.

The video to the debut single from new highly rated Edinburgh band THE GALLOWGATE MURDERS Wreck Head Wedding came out to a big fanfare. Filmed and directed by the main geez himself Frankie McLaughlin in Govan and Edinburgh. One of a few new bands in the scene we are expecting to here an awful lot more from once the lockdown ends!

Rose family Irish-American supergroup THE WILD IRISH ROSES album ‘Full Bloom‘ which was reviewed during St. Patrick’s Week is now out on vinyl.

After the hugely positive response to THE PLACKS debut single, My Dearest Friend the band are releasing a second single in May. Official release date will be announced soon but it will again be available for download and this time also on 7″ vinyl.

March was a mental time for releases and far too many came out for us to get round to but we did our best and hopefully we’ll get round to them all but these are the most recent releases we are aware of.

FEROCIOUS DOG – ‘You’

LEXINGTON FIELD – ‘Here’s To You: Ten Years Of Fiddle Rock’

NORTH ALONE -Punk Is Dad’

BLACK WATER COUNTY – ‘Comedies And Tragedies’

THE DEAD RABBITS – ‘The Dead Rabbits’

PADDY MURPHY – ‘Rams Rebels Goats and Girls

PEAT & DIESEL – ‘Light My Byre’

HUGH MORRISON – ‘The Other Side’

Been a good few years since the series of Shite’n’Onions compilation albums came out but luckily MacSLONS IRISH PUB RADIO have taken on the job and Volume 5 of Raise Your Pints is all set for release in early May. The Cloverhearts, The Placks, The Rumpled, Krakin ‘Kellys, The Gallowgate Murders, Ferocious Dog plus loads more. Find out more direct from MacSlons.

New York Irish rockers 1916 have a new album out later in the year and released the first single / video. After a successful St Patrick’s Week where they live streamed several entertaining shows including both full and acoustic band gigs and some solo shows from frontman Billy this is the Celtic-Punk scenes most anticipated album of 2020.

The crowd-funder for the second full-length 6’10 album, ‘Carried in Retrospect’ has ended and so the album is set for release sometime in the next few weeks.

THE DROPKICK MURPHYS after their Paddys Day show on Facebook are now even more bloody popular and celebrated with the release of a new single. The rather laboured ‘Mick Jones Nicked My Pudding’ is backed by the brilliant cover of Black 47’s ‘James Connolly’ and is available everywhere.

German band THE FEELGOOD McLOUDS may not be a band on every bodies lips but they are a bloody good band and have their new album ‘Life On A Ferris Wheel’ out very soon and having heard it can guarantee it will be one to watch for the end of year Best Albums Of 2020.

Swedes BLACK ANEMONE are very active in promoting the Celtic-Punk scene and have made a lot of friends because of that but they are also a cracking band and they have a new album due out any day. Here’s the title track and even with the current condition they still manage to bring out a decent video.

There’s a new Celtic-Punk band on the scene and thanks to SCORDISCI from Serbia for alerting us to the release of their cracking new song and video, a cover of The Pogues ‘I’m A Man You Don’t Meet Every Day’. Watch out for these guys!!!!

Having suffered the lock down longer than the rest of us Chinese band GRASS MUD HORSE have a had a busy couple of months with a fantastic new logo c/o Laurence Crow Illustrations and a massive range of merchandise for you to spend your hard earned on. They also put out the 6-track Quarantine Sessions of Irish covers and also featured on the Beijing Underground music compilation (both available for free) and also have an EP of original material out soon.

The Italian Celtic-Punk scene is on fire so far in 2020 and I’ve had a sneak peak at the new album from UNCLE BARD AND THE DIRTY BASTARDS ‘The Men Beyond The Glass’ and can confirm it is another brilliant release. They put out ‘Back on Your Feet’ as the first single from the album.

To wrap up our first edition of Odds’n’Sods we have two local bands to us the first being the excellent CALICO STREET RIOTS who were just getting into their stride with a whole pile of gigs lined up before lockdown came along. Their new single was written by bassist Nick about his son Harley and shows the Riots more reflective side.

London Irish alternative trad folk rockers and one of my favourite bands CROCK OF BONES released the video for the beautiful ‘Ferry’ and as all the videos here is well worth a look.

Finally (tomorrow May 1st) streaming site Bandcamp are doing away with revenue fees for the day so all money will go direct to the bands so check out your favourite bands BC sites and send rest assured that for one day at least these vultures won’t be pocketing a decent sized share of your money for doing absolutely nothing.

So you get the idea so all we need to do now is fill it with news and remember if you are new to the London Celtic Punks blog it is easy to subscribe / follow and never miss a post. Also if anyone is interested in helping out on the reviews front then let us know via the Contact Us page.

NEW SINGLE FROM BLACK ANEMONE ‘STRAIGHT BACK TO HELL’

Single Review, Sweden February 28, 2020 1 Comment

Celtic-Punk band from Sweden that loves to bring chaos and mischief to the world.

The band started out in 2010 when the front man Mattias wanted to start a new project in High School where most of the soon to be members of Black Anemone were studying music.

” I wanted to mix the sound traditional folk music, mostly Irish trad and fuse it with Punk-Rock.”

He recruited longtime friend Andy on guitar and soon after met Adam on drums. After recruiting some fellow school mates and after a few months rehearsing Black Anemone were formed. They released their first demo in 2011 and later an EP titled ‘”Let The Freak-Show Begin’. In the later part of 2011 Black Anemone started working on their first full length album that came put in 2013. The album, ‘King Of Kings’ was the first step for the band’s quest for world domination! At home they were making waves winning several awards including ‘Best local Act’ and appearing in most of the Celtic-Punk media’s end of year Best Of’s. Though the band has seen many changes from the original line-up the eight piece Black Anemone continue to grow.

”We love to bring chaos an mischief to the world. We like to go a little bit crazy and stir things up”.

(Video recorded and edited by Silversand Studios. Song recorded at Distmaskinen. Mix by Alexander Gabara Master by Ulf Blomberg)

Black Anemone are one of the most sincere bands in the scene. They share a real love for the music that sees them always encouraging others. Themselves they set the bar high as you will tell from watching the amazing video above. Young, edgy and sharp dressed and not afraid to be straight up in your face with their brilliant sing-a-long mix of Folk melodies, Rock’n’Roll sound and Punk feel.

Download Straight Back To Hell FromTheBand

Contact Black Anemone  Bandcamp  Facebook  Instagram  YouTube  Twitter

LONDON CELTIC PUNKS PRESENTS THE BEST OF 2017!

Album Review, Australia, Best Of's, Boston, Brazil, Brittany, Canada, Chicago, Czech Republic, England, EP Review, Folk-Punk, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, London, Netherlands, New York, Obituary, Scandinavia, Serbia, Sweden, Traditional, Ukraine, USA January 22, 2018 Comments: 6

Yes I know it only seems like five minutes since the last one but it’s that time of year again when we give you, for what it’s worth, our opinion on who made the best music in the celtic-punk scene over 2017. It’s been another outstanding year for the music that we all love and some truly fantastic records came out in the last twelve months. So read on to find out who came #1! Remember though this is only our opinion and these thirty album’s are only the tip of the iceberg of what was released last year. Feel free to comment, slag off or dissect our lists. We don’t pretend to be the final word as that my friends is for you…

1. FLATFOOT 56 (Chicago)- ‘Odd Boat’  here

2. THE TOSSERS (Chicago)- ‘Smash The Windows’  here

3. THE BIBLECODE SUNDAYS (London) – ‘Walk Like Kings’  here
4. THE PEELERS (Canada)- ‘Palace Of The Fiend’ here
5. FEROCIOUS DOG (England)- ‘Red’  here

6. BLACK WATER COUNTY (England)- ‘Taking Chances’  here

7. THE O’REILLYS AND THE PADDYHATS (Germany)- ‘Sign of the Fighter’  here

8. IN FOR A PENNY (USA)- ‘One More Last Hurrah’ here

9. LES RAMONEURS DE MENHIRS (Brittany)- ‘Breizh Anok’  here

10. MATILDA’S SCOUNDRELS (England)- ‘As The Tide Turns’  here

11. KILMAINE SAINTS (USA)- ‘Whiskey Blues & Faded Tattoos’  here

12. ORTHODOX CELTS (Serbia)- ‘Many Mouths Shut’  here

13. UNCLE BARD AND THE DIRTY BASTARDS (Italy)- ‘Handmade’  here

14. THE SILK ROAD (England)- ‘S/T’ here 

15. FLOGGING MOLLY (USA)- ‘Life Is Good’  here

16. THE LUCKY PISTOLS (USA)- ‘Where The Orioles Fly’  here

17. THE REAL McKENZIES (Canada)- ‘Two Devils Will Talk’  here

18. DRUNKEN DOLLY (Netherlands)- ‘Alcoholic Rhapsody’ here

19. CASSIDY’S BREWERY (Serbia)- ‘One Brew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’  here

20. THE MOORINGS (France)- ‘Unbowed’ here

21. CRAIC (USA)- ‘Sounds Of Vandemark’  here

22. JOLLY JACKERS (Hungary)- ‘Blood Sweat and Beer’ here

23. THE SCARLET (Hungary)- ‘Hardfolk Shanties’ here

24. THE DISTILLERY RATS (Germany)- ‘Tales From County Whiskey’ here

25. CELKILT (France)- ‘Stand’ here

26. DROPKICK MURPHYS (Boston)- ’11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory’  here

27. O’HAMSTERS (Ukraine)- ‘Где бы мы ни бывали’  here

28. SONS OF O’FLAHERTY (Brittany)- ‘The Road Not Taken’  here

29. THE BABES (London)- ‘Greetings From London’  here

30. CHEERS! (Czech Republic)- ‘Daily Bread’ here

Just bubbling under:

THE TEMPLARS OF DOOM (USA), GHOSTTOWN COMPANY (Germany) McSCALLYWAG (Netherlands)

No surprise here at all as all four admins voted #1 for Flatfoot 56 and their utterly brilliant ninth album. Not only that but we also all gave second spot to The Tossers, making it a Chicago #1 and #2! The year began with news of two new Dropkick Murphys albums coming but we only got the one and it met with, well quite a muted response to be honest. Saying that they were fantastic live and they certainly added a new dimension to these new songs when played in the flesh. The list leans heavy towards the bands from these shores it has to be said but it was always going to be with bands we get to see live regularly. It’s especially fitting to see The Bible Code Sundays in there too. In a year when every ‘big’ celtic-punk band released an album the competition was great so well done to all. Keep them coming. If you are not here then it just means we didn’t all agree or even all hear it and maybe we didn’t receive it too. The amount of debut albums from loads of these bodes well for both the scene here and internationally with a great mix of bands from thirteen countries.

BLACK WATER COUNTY- ‘Taking Chances’

This was a very hard category to fill with so many new bands arriving on the celtic-punk scene this past year. Soooo many to choose from but in the end we pumped for our very own Black Water County who just pipped Cassidy’s Brewery and In For A Penny to the title!

1. BLACK ANEMONE (Sweden)- ‘In It For Life’  here

2. RAIN IN SUMMER (Indonesia)- ‘Discordant Anthem From The Gutter’  here

3. IN FOR A PENNY (USA)- ‘Every Day Should be Saint Paddy’s Day’  here

4. THE BOTTLERS (Australia)- ‘The Bottlers’  (here)

5. BLACK RAWK DOG (Indonesia)- ‘Suburban’s Folk Stories’  here

6. BogZH CELTIC CATS! (Brittany)- ‘Kazh al Lagenn’  here

7. THE CRAZY ROGUES (Hungary)- ‘Rebels’ Shanties’  here

8. THE McMINERS (Brazil)- ‘Tales of Betrayal and Deceit’  here

9. BORN AGAIN HEATHENS (USA)- ‘Born Again Heathens’  here

10. THE DEAD MAGGIES (Australia)- ‘Wild Dogs And Flannies’  here

Stand out winner here from Sweden’s Black Anemone which none of us were sure was either a big EP or a small album so we gave it the benefit of the doubt and placed it in here. Outstanding! Two representatives of Indonesia’s fantastic celtic-punk scene made up for no album releases from there last year and one band from a Celtic nation with the BogZH Celtic Cats! The Bottlers sneak in as they only sent it to us the week before Christmas. Glad they did though.

1. DECLAN O’ROURKE- ‘Chronicles Of The Great Irish Famine’  (here)

2. ShamROCKS- ‘Ye Ould Chariot’ EP  (here)

3. CRIKWATER- ‘Crikwater’  (here)

4. BEOGA- ‘Before We Change Our Mind’

5. FOLLOW THE CROWS- ‘West is East’ EP  (here)

6. PLASTIC PADDY- ‘Lucky Enough’  (here)

7. DAMIEN DEMPSEY- ‘Soulson’

8. GALLEY BEGGAR- ‘Heathen Hymns’  (here)

9. I DRAW SLOW- ‘Turn Your Face To The Sun’

10. ANTO MORRA- ‘From The Vaults’

Absolutely no question who romped home here. from the first time I ever heard Declan O’Rourke’s monumental album Chronicles Of The Great Irish Famine I was simply blown away. I simply cannot recommend it enough. Go and acquire a copy now. A mix of folk and trad makes up the rest of the list with a special mention for Ukrainian band ShamROCKS who play Irish folk as if they were naturals! We would like to feature more trad and folk on these pages in the future hopefully. Also Vince Cayo had a fecking brilliant album but was neither celtic-punk nor folk. Was tempted to make a separate list just for him!

MERSEY CELT PUNKS

This use to be the Celtic Folk Punk And More Best Celtic Punk Web-Site award so often did they use to win but last year it went to the new kid on the block, our good mates over at Mersey Celt Punks. Well we were in a bit of a quandary about who would win this week but then in the last few weeks of the year the Mersey Bhoys upped their game and won a unanimous vote. They finally started to use their Web-Site (here) and published a whole host of great reviews and things like a events/gig section. You can also join in their fun and games at Twitter and Facebook and we heartily recommend you do.

So there you go. Remember we don’t pretend to be the final word on things in fact if you check the other celtic-punk media I’m sure we’ve all come up with relatively different lists. Our Best Of’s are cajoled and bullied out of the four admins from the London Celtic Punks Facebook page. The assorted scraps of paper and beer mats were then tallied up over several pints of Guinness in Mannions. Not all of us heard the same albums so like all Best Of’s ours is subjective.

CARLTON HUNT

Of course we cannot go any further without mention of the saddest news of the year. That of the passing of Carlton , the drummer of The Bible Code Sundays. A friend of London Celtic Punks and an absolute diamond stand up guy he will be forever sadly missed by all who met him. We are grateful To Ronan for penning a few words for him.

We lost Carlton on 3rd November 2017 unexpectedly and it has left a massive hole in our family. Carlton joined The BibleCode Sundays some twelve years ago when we were still called Slainte.

His work ethic was second to none, he even dragged us into the studio to record our first CD, he did a lot of pushing in the early days and the Lord knows we needed it!

He was always the first to say yes to any gig, whether it was a small Irish pub like The Old Crown in Hayes or The Shawl or whether it was some of our bigger gigs. Over the years we played some fantastic gigs and venues, such as The Royal Albert Hall, New York’s Beacon Theatre, The House of Blues in Boston, Shepherds Bush Empire, The Roundhouse, Glasgow Barrowlands, Indigo at The O2, Glastonbury Festival, Finsbury Park, London Irish, on the pitch at Twickenham Stadium and at Celtic Park (the night Celtic beat Barcelona). We’ve played with Elvis Costello, The Dropkick Murphys, The Wolfetones, John Lydon’s Public Image Ltd, the Saw Doctors and he even got to realise a dream when we shared a stage with Thin Lizzy. They were minus legends Phil Linnot and Gary Moore but this mattered not to Carlton, his hero Brian Downey was still behind the drums. Carlton got to meet his idol and even got some Thin Lizzy drumsticks as souvenir, he was like an excited little kid that night. We did TV appearances on Sky Sports, BT Sport and even a live St Patrick’s Day performance on BBC’s The One Show.

We got to travel around on trips and tours all around the UK and Ireland as well as Germany, Italy, Spain and the USA to mention a few. This was all just topping up the stamps on his passport that he had accrued in his days with Bad Manners, Feast of Fiddles and The Melody Fakers and many more as he spent so many years on the London Irish music scene.

Not many would know that he also wrote poetry and song lyrics, they are very clever with pun-tastic wordplay and generally came out sounding like Bernard Cribbins songs with titles like ‘Breakfast Epiphanies’ or the Brighton-themed song ‘All Things Brighton Beautiful’. He used to always say

“I try to be serious but the humour always takes over”

He did, however, manage to pen two of the best songs on our latest album, he was very proud of his songs ‘Disorganised Crime’ and the beautiful ‘Clouds’. Drummers writing songs?! Whatever next?! He truly was the engine room of the band, a quiet and gentle man off stage who turned into a one man wrecking ball when he was sat behind his drum kit.

Things will never be the same without him but he would want us to and we will carry on making music and playing his songs.

Ladies and Gentlemen, on drums.. Mr Carlton Hunt

This is the 5th year of us making these lists so if you would like to check out out who was where in our previous Best Of’s then just click on the link below the relevant year.

We are not alone in doing these Best Of lists in fact all the major players in celtic-punk do them so click below to check out what they thought.

CELTIC FOLK PUNK AND MORE

FOLK’N’ROCK

PADDYROCK

MERSEY CELT PUNKS

SHITE’n’ONIONS

MacSLONS IRISH RADIO

CELTICPUNK.PL

remember any views or comments we would love to hear them…

 Sláinte, The London Celtic Punks Crew- January, 2018

ALBUM REVIEW: BLACK ANEMONE- ‘In It For Life’ (2017)

Album Review, Sweden October 12, 2017 Leave a comment

Irish folk punk band from Sweden bringing chaos and mischief to the world!

Black Anemone hail from very close to the river Lagan… no not that one but the one just by Jönköping in southern Sweden! Now the Swede’s have quite the liking for celtic-punk music and Sweden has supplied the scene with some fantastic bands like Sir Reg and Finnegan’s Hell for just two and one of the latest are this bunch of young, edgy, sharply dressed folk-punk folk with their excellent brand of straight up, in your face singalong mixture of Irish folk and rock’n’roll and punk attitude.

Black Anemone from right to left: Mattias Sandberg- lead vocals (and various instruments) * Axel Martinsson- fiddle * Andreas Svensson (sitting down)- acoustic guitar, electric guitar * Rickard Olsson- Bass * Tilda Spross- tin whistle, second lead vocals * Adam Bernström- drums * Nermin Festa (sitting down)- electric guitar * Martin Hjärtkvist- banjo, mandolin * Fredrik Nilsson- accordion

Black Anemone formed in 2010 when front man Mattias fell in love at school with old time Irish music and after recruiting his longtime friend Andy on guitar they began to lay the foundations for the band. As Mattias says

”I wanted to mix the sound traditional folk music, mostly Irish trad and fusion it with rock and punk. Having strong roots in the rock and punk genre”

Within a few months and with the addition of several more school friends Black Anemone was formed. Solid rehearsing and some low key gigs saw the release of their first Demo, Let The Freak Show Begin, in 2011. That Demo definitely takes the raucousness of Flogging Molly but takes it to another level with fast Irish folk and Scandinavian raspy but still tuneful vocals. Its been made available by the band as a free download if you like (here). They soon after began work writing songs for their debut album and with a growing reputation as a live act and bolstered by several local music awards this album would be eagerly anticipated not just by their fans at home but also throughout the celtic-punk world. Titled King Of Kings it hit the streets in early 2013 and was eleven tracks of mostly acoustic but upbeat fast played Irish folk that shifts and changes and along the way sounded like most of celtic-punk’s major league players, as well a few that would deserve to be, and added to all that further folk influences sneaking in from all across Europe.

Their new album In It For Life begins with an absolute stormer of a song, ‘Freedom And For All’ with Mattias vocals perched somewhere between Shane McGowan and Joe Strummer it’s a banjo led number that has the feel good factor turned up to eleven and four years on from King Of Kings they haven’t lost any of their bite whatsoever.

‘Amber’s Point’ follows and is more a trad Irish number with a very distinctive Irish intro. Very catchy with a country feel at times and great vocals and lyrics and a banjo/accordion combination to die for! We stay in trad territory next for ‘Every Dog Has It’s Day’ an original song (not a cover of you know who!) and its what passes for the album’s epic slow number except it’s not really that slow but is indeed very epic. It’s the album’s longest track and for me it doesn’t get any better here than this. The accordion drives it along while the band accompany Mattias with the odd yell of ‘Hey!’ and with mandolin giving it that incredible Irish celtic-punk sound we all love so much. The album is only eight tracks and fairly brief at twenty-six minutes long but the Bhoys and Ghirl (an incredible nine members- that’s nearly a football team!) certainly know they way round a tune and the first cover, of two, is up next and yeah, yeah, yeah I know everyone seems to have covered ‘Drunken Sailor’ but there’s an obvious reason to why it’s covered so much and that’s because when its done well it’s quite simply one of the best tunes ever written and here I can be happy to report that Black Anemone turn in as good a version as you will ever likely hear. They keep it short and fast and proper-celticpunk! We are at the halfway point through the LP and next up is the title tune ‘In It For Life’. Again Mattias explains

“In It For Life is our tribute to the love of playing music. The love of playing live, Writing music, traveling and the constant grinding that is the music business today! we are are and will forever be in it for life”

The prominent banjo and alternatively fast punk/ska’ish sound reminds me a lot of our very own English celt-rockers Mick O’Toole. Gang vocals and a brilliant tune that leads us into ‘It’s A Short Life (But A Merry One)’ and they may have turned the punk down a fraction and maybe it’s possibly the odd one out on the album but its still an absolute belter that shifts towards being accordion driven halfway through before joined by fiddle. ‘Hellhounds On My Back’ is next up and funny enough Hellhounds is what fans of English celtic-punk band Ferocious Dog call themselves and the fiddle here gives the song an air of them as well before we get to the last track, and the second of the album’s covers of traditional folk songs. ‘Banks Of The Roses’ was originally made famous by The Dubliners and has been recorded by many Irish and Scottish artists since. The song is given a pretty standard celtic-punk showing and by pretty standard I mean, of course, utterly brilliant!

“On the Banks of the Roses me love and I sat down
And I took out me fiddle for to play me love a tune”

Sounding quite like The Rumjacks when they get hold of an old trad song Black Anemone give it plenty of oomft and the album ends on very much a high note.


In It For Life came out last June and as you can imagine for a nine piece band the sound is incredible so hats off to Alexander Gabara for his amazing work in capturing the band so perfectly. The band have got it exactly spot-on here with both their sound and the combination of folk and punk and folkpunk all underpinned with the trad sounds of Ireland. A superb album and well deserving of your ear time so don’t delay and follow the links below to hear Black Anemone today! 

(listen free to In It For Life before you buy by pressing play on the Bandcamp player below)

Buy In It For Life

FromTheBand  iTunes

Contact Black Anemone

Facebook  Twitter  YouTube  Soundcloud   Bandcamp  ReverbNation

(full live concert recorded at Tre Trappor in Sweden last February)

%d bloggers like this: