Ten years after releasing their first disc, Pennywise still sound like they mean it, maaan -- "it" being the assurance that the Man is out to screw you over and might succeed if not for the healing powers of three-chord punk. As ever, Jim Lidberg's drill-instructor-styled bark gets the message across extremely effectively, especially on more in-your-face outbursts like "Greed" and "F*ck the Government." Likewise, guitarist Fletcher Dragge trots out a handful of new tricks -- some lifted from the notebooks of longtime collaborator
Brett Gurewitz -- without losing the tightly wound vibe that spurs the tunes forward. While this, the quartet's sixth full-length, does show a few signs of a slowdown (most noticeably on the overly polished single "Alien"), there's still a palpable sense of purpose that separates Pennywise from their more mainstreamed peers. Just as importantly, the all-out heaviness of sound (see "My Own Country" and the booming title track) remains unslimmed, making Pennywise the surf punkers least likely to be converted to Muzak down the road.
