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Punk rockers Ink Bomb releases new music video: Tough Cookie

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The Dutch melodic punk rock band Ink Bomb releases a new song today: Tough Cookie. With this song, the foursome returns to the punk side of melodic punk rock: it’s an old-fashioned, explosive mosh track. However, Ink Bomb wouldn’t be Ink Bomb if they wouldn’t hide a teensy bit of melody in the song: the second verse has a dreamy synth sound, buried deep between the hardcore choruses.

Listen to Tough Cookie on Spotify
The music video was shot by Sanne Nijenhuis and captures Ink Bomb as they feel the most in their element: giving their all on stage. Some parts were filmed in the legendary venue Willemeen in Arnhem.

If that wasn’t enough: Tough Cookie also features drummer Paul van de Geijn’s vocal solo debut: he starts the song by counting to four in Dutch, with a typical non-rhotic Nijmegen-style ‘r’ at the end of the word ‘vier’.

According to singer Joost Hoedemaeckers the song is about someone who is less and less able to handle the sorry state of the world. Things he loves are disappearing and he wants to escape from it all (‘In case of emergency, break glass’). Warning: don’t do a suicide quite yet! Just start by fighting back, with a little help from your friends. The artwork refers to the importance of friendship.

Tough Cookie is different from most other Ink Bomb songs and shows how much the band has changed since its carefree skate punk days in 2015. The second album, to be released in 2024, will contain more melancholy with many different influences, for example new wave, indie rock, and grunge.

Biography Ink Bomb
Dutch punkrock band Ink Bomb is busy writing, recording and releasing a new album in 2024. Three singles and accompanying videos for this sophomore album have already been released. The new songs contain the signature Ink Bomb sound: fast, aggressive songs that don’t always follow the standard song structure or punk rock cliches, but do always contain beautiful melodies and a refreshing dose of melancholy.

Ink Bomb loves playing live: from sweaty basements throughout Europe to cool festivals. The band is an active live band at home and is also eager when it comes to foreign tours. Belgium, Germany, Denmark and England have all been exposed to the Bad Religion and No Fun At All inspired Ink Bomb sound. Furthermore the band have played several festivals including the prestigious Valkhof festival in their home town Nijmegen, Jera On Air and Haltpop. They have shared the stage with bands like The Toy Dolls, SNFU, The Last Gang, I Against I, MakeWar and Martha.

Ink Bomb has released new music almost every year in its existence. The lastest release was a split album with No Breakfast Goodbye (2021). In that same year the band also rerecorded their classic song “Invincible Summer.” Earlier releases include debut album Fiction (2016), ep Swim (2017), ep Invincible Summer (2016) and several acoustic covers for charity.

Reviews

(review) The Dwarves – ‘Concept Album’

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Legendary punk band The Dwarves are back with their brand new studio full length and 20 new songs for your listening pleasure. For those who don’t know, The Dwarves play mixture of melodic punk, hardcore and garage punk. Vocalist Blag Dahlia sounds better than ever and the band is musically tight delivering the songs as energy bomb, one after another. From melodic chorus of ‘Feeling great’, across hardcore punk fast ‘Voodoo’, The Dwarves deliver the goods. The Dwarves never cared about political correctness, having their deal of scandals over the years with album covers, death hoaxes, feuds and brawls with other bands. Besides Blag Dahlia, The Dwarves line-up also consists of celebrity drummer Josh Freese (Foo Fighters), legendary multi-instrumentalist Nick Oliveri (Kyuss) and dozens of rock luminaries. Other songs that I must mention as being highlights on this album for me are ‘Dead To Me’, playful sexy song, also ‘Roxette’, ‘Everybody Squirts’ and ‘We Will Dare’ but as I listened album over and over every time something else springs forth making this a great listening pleasure. Go listen to The Dwarves if you dare!

8,5/10 axes

Reviews

(review) Spanish Love Songs – ‘No Joy’

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Spanish Love Songs are hailing from Los Angeles, California and this is their new release containing twelve songs. This isn’t your standard California skate punk with nineties influence, no, this is something quite original and great. These guys play emotional melodic punk rock, leaning more into pop punk waters than harsher punk rock with haunting guitar melodies, synth backed harmonies and superb vocals whose emotional voice emphasizes the atmosphere of songs which is quite something. This is pretty darkened album in my opinion, personal lyrics dealing with mental health, sickness, suicide, hope and hopelessness, apocalypse all from personal standpoint and lyrics are great, smart but in your face at the same time. Some of the songs are slower and more atmospheric, some are more straightforward punk rock like awesome ‘Haunted’ which is one of my favorites on this album, smartly chosen for a single and video. Although leaning more into pop one of my highlights is also ‘Clean-Up Crew’, two other songs I must mention are ‘I’m Gonna Miss Everything’ and ‘Exit Bags’. This album is a must for all you fans of haunting and sometimes eerie melodic emotional pop punk rock.

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