Look: I can’t be objective here. No music critic is ever really objective — objectivity itself is a total myth — but I’m especially not objective here. Rancid are my favorite band of all time. Let’s Go changed my entire perception of reality when I was 14, and I’d be a profoundly different person if I didn’t find it at exactly the right time. I am in the tank for Rancid. With all that said, I am delighted to report that Rancid’s new album Tomorrow Never Comes kicks 31 flavors of ass.

It’s been six years since Rancid released Trouble Maker, their last album, and the band seemed to be falling into a pattern. They weren’t making music that often, and they were mostly playing their older songs on tour. Ever since 2009’s Let The Dominoes Fall, a new Rancid album might have a few tracks, but it would sound like a distant echo of their glory years. But that’s not what I’m getting from Tomorrow Never Comes.

I feel pretty confident saying that Tomorrow Never Comes is the best Rancid album in 20 years. It’s not quite …And Out Come The Wolves, or even Indestructible, but this venerable-institution band is playing with focus and urgency. Their hooks hit hard, and they bring the exact right level of grit to the recording — which, as always, is produced by Epitaph founder, Bad Religion guitarist, and longtime Rancid ally Brett Gurewitz. The songs on Tomorrow Never Comes are short and sharp and generally a whole lot of fun. If you have any affection for Rancid in general, then I would recommend the new album without reservation. We’ve already posted the title track, “Don’t Make Me Do It,” and “Devil In Disguise,” and now you should really bang the whole album below.

Tomorrow Never Comes is out now on Hellcat/Epitaph.