Dropkick Murphys come out swinging on their eighth full-length album, SIGNED and SEALED in BLOOD. This time around, everything has been cranked up past 10. The guitars are ballsier, the gang vocals are louder, the hooks are catchier, the lyrics stop you in your tracks. The brashest moments of SIGNED and SEALED in BLOOD feel like the last 30 seconds of a Stanley Cup hockey game: frenetic, on the edge, dangerous.

The album is the band’s second with producer Ted Hutt (Gaslight Anthem, Old Crow Medicine Show) and was recorded by James R. Brown (Foo Fighters) at Boston’s Q Division studios, and mixed by Joe Chiccarelli (The White Stripes).