Flogging Molly go gunning for US chart glory again with Speed Of Darkness, their new album which is due in May and is trailed this week by lead single ‘Don’t Shut ‘Em Down’. You can get it free in return for signing up to their [link]www.floggingmolly.com[/link] mailing-list.
Other tracks on the opus include ‘So Sail On’, ‘Saints & Sinners’ and ‘Heart Of The Sea’.
The band is fronted by expat Dubliner Dave King who was formerly in Motorhead offshoot Fastway, and is currently based in Detroit.
"I've always been a writer of my surroundings,” King tells the Detroit Free Press newspaper. “The surroundings for this album, unfortunately, were the economy in Ireland and being in Detroit watching all that go down. As a songwriter, I'm not naïve, but you can only be affected and touched by things like this, seeing what's going on in this city and in Ireland – and just how damned fast it can happen.
“Detroit is very Irish in a way,” he continues. "Where I grew up in Dublin it was very poverty-ridden. But the one thing that was always true was the sense of humor of the people – this caustic, dry sense of humor that's very resilient – and it's very similar in Detroit.”
Flogging Molly are a big deal in the States with their last record, Float, reaching number 4 on the mainstream Billboard chart.