Dutch punk band Ink Bomb is releasing their new single ‘Flourish.’ Naturally, the release is accompanied by a music video, this time featuring atmospheric historical footage that the band uses to highlight social unrest, absurdity, and alienation.
With ‘Rome Is Burning (again)’, released last May, Ink Bomb showcased a rawer sound than before, incorporating influences from indie and grunge. ‘Flourish’ adds emo influences to the mix. Less skate punk, more emotion, in the vein of Alkaline Trio or Sincere Engineer, combining catchy melodies with explosive choruses and an emotional ending.
‘Flourish’ is about the unrest currently gripping the world as far-right ideas become increasingly normalized. Vocalist Joost Hoedemaeckers explains: “Instead of blaming others, it’s time we looked in the mirror and tried to put ourselves in the shoes of our fellow human beings.”
Ink Bomb also aims to convey this message through the music video, which portrays the fate of people who have been less fortunate. For the video, the band used royalty-free footage from the Open Beelden project and selected fragments that depict social unrest and alienation, while the combination of contrasting images also gives the video a surreal and absurd quality at times.
‘Flourish’ is the second part of a trilogy. Each song in the trilogy comes with a B-side, giving the band an opportunity to put some lesser-known but fitting songs in the spotlight. For ‘Flourish’, the B-side is the melodic and catchy ‘Midnight In The Desert’, taken from the band’s debut album ‘Fiction’ (2019).
The drums were recorded by Martin Kuijpers of MK Music Productions. As usual, guitarist Quirijn Foekens of Fiction Studio handled all other recording and the mixing, while mastering was done by Ivo Statinski. The photo used for the artwork was taken by Sven Baijen.