The Tossers – The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death

  • Bobby Gorman posted
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The Tossers

The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death - Victory Records

Goodmorning’ da was a bad choice of song to promote The Tossers‘s new album, The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death. Now, I’m not saying that the single is a bad song, in fact, it’s a great song. It’s fast, quick, in your face Irish punk at it’s best and is phenomenal song. But it is a misleading song, because there isn’t one other song on the entire album that sounds remotely like it. That doesn’t take away from the fact that The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death is a great album, it just may not be what you’re expecting after hearing the single.

The remaining eleven tracks on The Valley of The Shadow Of Death are much more traditional Irish folk songs than the speedy, punky Goodmornin’ da. However, that’s not saying that these songs are missing any kick in them. Not one song on the album sounds like its predecessor, but every single one is distinctively The Tossers. They’re full of instruments you won’t expect to hear on a Victory release like a mandolin, accordion, tin whistle, banjo and fiddle – all of which are rounded off perfectly by Tony Duggins’ solid, heavenly accented vocals. And yet, there’s still enough of a punch in their songs for them to easily fit into any punk label, even one as heavy as Victory.

But as stated before, the thing that sticks out the most in the album is the extreme variations. Well it is all clearly rooted in Irish folk music tinged with a little punk, every song falls on different parts of the spectrum. There’s the speedy traditional drinking song of Preab San OlThe Crock Of Gold starts off slowly, but the sprints into a full blown pit turner halfway through the song. The tribute to Ronnie Drew,Drinking In The Day, even starts off with a two minute reading of an old poem before breaking into a duet with Kelly Stanley. I’ve Pursued Nothing even gets the listener thinking that it’s a brand new song during its shout along chorus.

This is the CD that has been hiding in the background for a while, and it’s about time that it broke out into the world. While it’s not for everyone, any Flogging Molly fan will tremble at their knees after one listen to it. The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death is just a high energy, Irish punk album that will easily last through the years. If you don’t have this CD, then you are missing out.