Dead Anthems – The Rumjacks

The Rumjacks return with their sixth studio album, Dead Anthems. It feels like every country has their own Celtic punk/rock band, and The Rumjacks is Australias contribution to the scene. However, in my book, this is not the ordinary run of the mill Celtic band, but rather being one of the best in the business.

Because of this, it was with quite some anticipation I turned this one on. And right from the start I feel at home. Opener Come Hell or High Water brings exactly what I need from Celtic punk. Melody, energy, gang-choruses, and in this case historical lyrics. It doesn’t reinvent the genre, but is also not a genre that lends itself that well to reinvention. For me, The Rumjacks tend to hit that sweet spot of punkrock energy and traditional Celtic sound.

The band goes between straight up party songs such as Smash Them Bottles to more serious themes as in Pulled From the Shore, romantic themes in October and the more historical themes such as Cold Like This (where Ken Casey from colleagues Dropkick Murphys make an appearance). Musically Dead Anthems is also pretty diverse, mixing up the tempo well throughout the album. The influences, especially from The Pogues can be heard clearly at times, for example on Cold Like This that has a bit of Star of the County Down-vibe and the closing track dedicated to Shane MacGowan also shares some DNA with his old band.

The Rumjacks don’t do anything exceptionally new on Dead Anthems, but deliver a very well crafted album. It’s pretty polished, without any rough edges, which can be both a good and a bad thing. Perhaps I’m missing a little bit of that really raw energy at times, but that is a minor complaint. All in all Dead Anthem is a great album, and shows that The Rumjacks are among the top in the genre.