“Get up! Your voices are needed!” Justin Sane shouts on Anti-Flag’s 8th studio album ’The General Strike’, on SideOneDummy through Shock. It’s a rallying cry that shares a sentiment with a lot of Anti-Flag songs, the call to arms of private citizens to stand up to governmental power and corporate injustice. The difference is that this album, born in the midst of the biggest wave of mass protests the world has seen in over 40 years, is speaking the language of the kids who are already occupying parks, lobbies and plazas all across the globe.

’The General Strike’ finds Anti-Flag right where they belong, out in the crowd, alongside the occupying protesters in every major city in the increasingly dissatisfied modern world, screaming their pointed, politically charged slogans over some of their most ambitious tracks to date. And this time, the world is singing with them.

Without compromising their trademark style, ’The General Strike’ finds Anti-Flag bounding effortlessly from the Hot Water Music-esque ’1915’ to the hardcore of ’Bullshit Opportunist’ to the frenetic, reggae-influenced energy of ’This Is The New Sound’, an anti-wage slavery anthem which highlights Justin and the gang’s tight, reckless virtuosity and effortless hooks. Not to be outdone, Chris number 2 alternately screams, whispers and bellows out anthems of his own like the bounding folk tinged ’Turn a Blind Eye’, a song that seems to sum up the 99 percent’s frustration with the lack of accountability at the top in less than one and a half minutes.

Of course, Anti-Flag is more than just Pittsburgh basements and catchy songs. They’re also a relentless touring force and outspoken activists. In the time since 2009’s ’The People Or The Gun’ came out, Anti-Flag has shared stages and protest ground all over the world with amazing individuals and groups. 2009-2010 saw Anti-Flag go to Russia, as well as South America for the first time. They played the Vans Warped tour, the UK’s massive Reading and Leeds festivals, Soundwave in Australia, Canadian dates with My Chemical Romance, the Vans Off the Wall European tour, Ruisrock in Finnland, Pukkelpop in Belgium and high profile local shows like Home For The Holidays with the Bouncing Souls, and Florida’s Harvest of Hope festival, which provides emergency educational and financial relief to migrant farm workers and their families.

And the big news is, the band will be headlining a tour of Australia with fellow U.S. punk acts Strike Anywhere and The Flatiners just after album release, on what promises to be one of the biggest punk events of 2012. MAY Thu 24 Perth (Capitol, 18+), Fri 25 Adelaide (Fowlers, Lic/AA), Sun 27 Melbourne (HiFi, 18+), Wed 30 Brisbane (The Zoo, 18+), Thu 31 Gold Coast (Coolangatta Hotel, 18+), JUNE Fri 1 Sydney (Manning Bar, 18+), Sat 2 Wollongong (Uni Bar, 18+)