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**1/2 Pennywise

LAND OF THE FREE?

(Epitaph)

SoCal speedpunks Pennywise have never quite broken through like their contemporaries Green Day and Offspring, but they have managed an impressive reign atop the suburban-punk underground dating back to the days of Dookie. Commercial radio showed them a little love last time out thanks to “Alien,” a moody left turn from their ’99 Straight Ahead. Now, on their sixth Epitaph studio release, the band try to build on that success with the similarly mid-tempo first single, “Divine Intervention.”

AOR Pennywise sound better than you might expect: the group’s fleshed-out arrangements still have plenty of bite, and singer/folk hero Jim Lindberg takes on organized religion with thoughtful derision on the single. But the hardcore beat rules the rest of the disc, and that provides plenty of concrete-bashing fodder for skatepunks across the world. The hook-heavy title track chugs along like Bad Religion with all the idealism but none of the big words. “Fuck Authority” is even more to the point, breaking down in the middle to let a group of Internet contest winners sing a chorus. That kind of benevolent gesture more than makes up for the band’s occasional descent into hackneyed punk protest.

— Sean Richardson