It's been one hell of a year for Anti-Flag. Way back in January, they released what remains one of the best punk albums of the year so far, 20/20 Vision. "We have actively chosen to not attack Presidents directly, either with album art or songs about certain times in history, because we recognize that the issues we’re dealing with are cyclical," Chris #2 said when the album was announced. "But this record in particular, we kind of said, well fuck that, we need to be on the record in opposition to the policies of Donald Trump and Mike Pence."

"This record is a warning to people holding neofascist ideas or people who are enabling these types of positions, whether you’re outright racist or you’re enabling racism or sexism or homophobia or transphobia," Justin Sane added. Anti-Flag have been fighting against those forms of bigotry for decades, but they still couldn't have known just how prophetic this album would become. As the chaos of 2020 continued to ensue, the band did some awesome benefit raffles, and they recently released a documentary, Beyond Barricades: The Story of Anti-Flag. "If we don’t speak up, things will never get better. Right now I think people need to be reminded of this fact," Justin Sane told us about the decision to release the doc this year.

As 2020 comes to a close, Anti-Flag have put out something else, 20/20 Division, a deluxe version of 20/20 Vision with five new and unreleased tracks. Besides the slower, anthemic closer "Fight Like Hell," all of the new songs find Anti-Flag in fast-paced, fired-up punk mode, giving you exactly the kind of cathartic rush you need to offset the anxiety of the approaching Election Day.

"When we were writing the record we wanted people to know that it could get a lot worse and I think over the course of 4 years it has gotten worse and guess what? It can get even worse still!", Justin said in our recent interview. "In the past people have always said, 'America could never become an authoritarian state.' Sorry, it’s already there. Don’t believe me? Then go talk to George Floyd’s family or the indigenous people at Standing Rock or those at the border whose families were destroyed by ICE. Now the question is, how far are we gonna let this go?"

The new tracks are all just as essential as everything on the original album, and they remind you that this is a band who just do not slow down or give up. Listen to the full 16-song 20/20 Division below.

Meanwhile, you can watch Beyond Barricades on-demand now and the DVD release is coming November 6 (pre-order). Trailer below.