The Warrior's Code is the fifth studio album by the Celtic punk band Dropkick Murphys. Released in June 2005, it is also their bestselling. It features a dedication to Lowell's own "Irish" Micky Ward who is featured on the album's cover and is the subject of the album's title track. It is also their final record with Hellcat Records before moving to their own vanity label, Born & Bred Records. The album was the first to feature band members Tim Brennan and Scruffy Wallace.
The album features one of the band's biggest and most well known singles, "I'm Shipping Up to Boston", which the band originally released on the "Fields of Athenry" single, although it was re-recorded for The Warrior's Code. The band released the song on their own as a single in 2006. However, it became a hit after being featured in the Oscar-winning movie The Departed and its soundtrack.
The band filmed music videos for the singles of "Sunshine Highway", "The Warrior's Code" and two videos for "I'm Shipping Up to Boston", the second was used featuring footage from The Departed. The album also features the bonus track "Tessie" which was released as its own single and music video in August 2004.
Songs and composition
"Your Spirit's Alive" was written in memory of the band's friend Greg "Chickenman" Riley, who died in a motorcycle accident in 2004. It also references former Boston Bruins player Garnet Bailey and Massachusetts-born hockey player Mark Bavis, who both died during the September 11 attacks.
"The Warrior's Code" is about Lowell, Massachusetts boxing legend Micky Ward, who is also shown on the album's cover. The song would later be used in the 2010 film The Fighter, a biopic about Ward.
"Captain Kelly's Kitchen" is another of the band's traditional arrangements.
"Sunshine Highway" was the first single from this album and has been featured on Royal Caribbean's Sports' Deck, even though the song is about drug rehabilitation.
"The Green Fields of France" is a cover of the anti-war ballad by Eric Bogle.
The lyrics to "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" come from unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics, consisting of a short rant by a sailor looking for a wooden leg in Boston. It is the band's second adaptation of a Woody Guthrie song, the first being "Gonna Be a Blackout Tonight" on their previous studio album, Blackout.
"Wicked Sensitive Crew" was written in response to accusations that the band's music and image promoted violence. The song includes the lyric "I ain't ashamed I cried when Mickey died in Rocky II", although Mickey actually died of a heart attack after a confrontation with Clubber Lang in Rocky III. The band actually address this in the album credits, stating that "Mickey actually died in Rocky 3 but, hey, sue us, two rhymed better."
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The album received mostly positive reviews from critics. Allmusic gave the album a rating of 3.5 out of five stars, praising the "alternating lead vocals, a tag team of rage and bravado."
Personnel
Dropkick Murphys
- Al Barr – vocals
- Ken Casey – bass, vocals
- Matt Kelly – drums, bodhrán, vocals
- James Lynch – guitar, vocals
- Marc Orrell – guitar, accordion, vocals
- Scruffy Wallace – bagpipes
- Tim Brennan – mandolin, tin whistle, acoustic guitar
Additional personnel
- Laura Casey – viola, cello
- Marco Urban – vocals
- Josephine Lyons – vocals
- Tom O'Connell – vocals
- Tom Madden – vocals
- Anders Geering – vocals
- Lance Burnett – vocals
- Johnny Damon – backing vocals on "Tessie"
- Bronson Arroyo – backing vocals on "Tessie"
- Lenny DiNardo – backing vocals on "Tessie"
- Jeff Horrigan – backing vocals on "Tessie"
- Bill Janovitz – backing vocals on "Tessie"
- Dr. Charles Stienberg – backing vocals on "Tessie"
- Joe Castiglione – voice sample on "Tessie"