The sixth and latest entry in "Chinese Zodiac" series from Toronto hardcore provocateurs Fucked Up, which began with 2007's Year Of The Pig; as with the previous installments, this 12" features a sprawling, expansive title track where the band continues to explore the ever shifting boundaries of their version of hardcore punk, the subtle traces of prog rock and psychedelia that have distinguished their previous releases once again bubbling to the surface here; and that epic is surrounded by a couple of shorter songs, moving from the band's longform prog-tinged punk saga into shorter, more raucous blasts of hardcore fury. It's one of the best in the series, in my opinion.

    "Year Of The Dragon" fills up the entire a-side of the record, a strident eighteen minute epic that moves from the early moody jangle of the opening melody into a thunderous, propulsive hook, singer Damian Abraham pounding the air with his ferocious screams, ripping through the metallic crunch that the band whips around a steadily increasing tempo, then later slipping into slower, darker passages of 'gazey gloom-rock with wailing wah-drenched guitars, and into bursts of crushing, almost crossover-thrash style riffage that evolve into one of the band's trademark motorik grooves. Towards the end of the song, the guitarists start to unfurl some killer, almost bluesy hard rock and ornate riffery that almost suggests that they'd been listening to a lot of Blue Oyster Cult prior to recording this EP, and the end of the side finally transforms into a furious mix of classic-sounding heavy metal gallop and soaring Floydian soloing. The other two songs are pure fuckin' punk, though, covers of obscure Toronto punk outfits Cardboard Brains and The Ugly. Both of these songs ("I Wanna Be A Yank" and "Disorder", respectively), are reshaped in Fucked Up's feral image, ripping four-chord pogo-burners in that classic early 80's punk rock vein, but here made more lush and layered with twinges of the band's rabid psychedelia bleeding through into the stomping anthemic hooks.