The Black Pacific

When Pennywise vocalist Jim Lindberg left the band in 2009 after 20 years, nine studio albums, almost four million records sold and countless sold-out tour dates, many people in the music world assumed that would be the last they'd hear from Lindberg for a while. They were wrong. Almost immediately after leaving the band, Lindberg recruited drummer Alan Vega (no, not the Suicide member.) and longtime friend, L.A. musician Davey Latter on bass, and began to flush out a batch of songs that see Lindberg moving in a more sonically varied direction without abandoning any of the energy and aggression of his previous act. The band then teamed up with Far guitarist and producer Shaun Lopez (Deftones, Giant Drag) and headed into his Airport Studios to begin working on their debut.

"With this album there was definitely a sense that I had something to prove," he explains. "I really wanted to show people that I could create a great album on my own. This is the kind of music I've been playing my whole life, so why not embrace it?"

That last statement couldn't be any more true, and while many punk veterans eventually turn to acoustic music or less aggressive versions of what they've done in the past, The Black Pacific is teeming with more vitriol than ever. From aggressive anthems like "Living With Ghosts" and "The System" to the heavy, pop-leaning punk sound of "Kill Your Idols" and the dynamic range of tracks like "No Purpose".