On their seventh album Land Of The Free?--a record inspired by the worldwide protests against the World Trade Organisation--LA skatecore veterans Pennywise claim to have written "a soundtrack for political activists all over the world". That this is one of their finest albums to date is rather predictably, however, not due to any inspired political invective; rather, the anthemic barrage of the opening "Time Marches On" sets the tone for an album that impacts like a police baton charge. Pennywise work so well as a complete band, it's often nothing short of breathtaking; just listen to the way Randy Bradbury's deft basslines cleverly weaving around the chugging juggernaut riffage dealt out by guitarist Fletcher Dragg on the towering holler-a-long "F**k Authority". The politics might not be expressed with an eloquence as revolutionary as Pennywise clearly think, but forget that; Land of t he Free? is a wake-up call to the sheer seismic power of punk-rock. --Louis Pattison