Pre-eminent punk band Bad Religion will release their new album True North this January 25th on Epitaph Records.

In a world still brimming with rampant anti-intellectualism, inequality and oppression, the band’s signature brand of sonically charged humanist dissent seems as relevant as ever. On their newest record, the storied band deliberately revisits and refines the powerful and melodic Southern California sound they helped to define on such albums as Suffer, No Control and The Empire Strikes First.

“We went back to our original mission statement of short concise bursts of melody and thought,” co-songwriter and guitarist Brett Gurewitz explains. “The intent was to record stripped down punk songs without sacrificing any conceptual density.” With 16 songs clocking in at just 35 minutes, the band obviously succeeded in paring down the songs to their furious essence. The album’s first single is a propulsive anthem succinctly called “F*ck You.” As the band’s singer and co-songwriter Greg Graffin explains, “If any band should have a song with that title, it should be us. It just sounds like a perfect Bad Religion song.”