Well, not to ruin the surprise or anything. But the entire EP is one, 18 minute long song. You can chalk this up to one of two things. Either Fat Mike has decided to become a composer, and write his magnum opus, 18 minutes with consistent themes, complex orchestrations, or he has a sense of humour. Assuming that it's the latter, I listened to said EP, and it was definitely interesting. Without a doubt, NOFX has decided that it's so-called maturity on their last two records (So Long... and Heavy Petting Zoo) was both unecessary, and not very much fun. I agree. Reverting back to the more hardcore-influenced sounds of Two Heebs and a Bean, and to a lesser extent, S&M Airlines, The Decline is really cool. It's loud, it's fast, and it doesn't take the time to apologize for this NOFX-born-again sound. Thank god. NOFX is a band I've been listening to for, well, ever, so the lackluster albums they released recently were a big disappointment. While nothing will probably ever come close to Punk in Drublic, at least NOFX is releasing a NOFX-album again.


So, without sounding too prententious-reviewer-esque, I'll say this. The Decline kicks ass. Those jackhammer drums we all know and love are there, Fat Mike's snotty vocals sound like this is his first record, and he loves it, and lest we forget, the bouncing bass and superfast guitars are there.


Oh yeah, El Hefe still plays his trumpet. But that's ok.


So, those of you without patience are probably wondering when I'll get to the point. Well, it's this. The Decline is an EP any band could be proud of. And a band with the history of NOFX should be especially proud that they've finally stopped with the weird-ass experimentation that seemed to drip off recent records, and put out a true NOFX album. So all the rip-off artists that have been waiting for something new to rip-off should be really happy, because NOFX is back.