Rancid: Lars Frederiksen, Tim Armstrong (vocals, guitar); Matt Freeman (bass, background vocals); Brett Reed (drums).

Additional personnel: Paul Jackson (Hammond organ); Bashiri Johnson (percussion); DJ Disk (scratches).

In the wake of the Offspring's success, Rancid became a hot band, earning a dedicated cult and sparking a major-label bidding war. After flirting with a handful of major labels, the band decided to stick with Epitaph and returned with And Out Come the Wolves. While the title is a veiled reference to the attention the band gained, the album doesn't mark an isolationist retreat into didactic, defiantly underground punk rock. Instead, Rancid develop their own identity on the record, which ironically makes them more accessible. Although they continue to draw heavily from the Clash and the Specials -- and their roots in the ska-punk band Operation Ivy are quite clear throughout the record -- the band plays with such energy and conviction, it's easy to forgive their derivativeness. On the whole, And Out Come the Wolves is a little too long to make a major impact, but individual tracks are classic moments of revivalist punk, including the skittering 2-Tone tribute "Time Bomb." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

There's a saying that there can never be too much of a good thing, and Rancid could've coined the phrase. Their irresistible old-school punk and their ska-in-the-garage guitar sound are sure to please anyone who thought the Clash were the best that '70s punk had to offer.

Yet, considering their loyalty to the original punk aesthetic, Rancid sound surprisingly fresh. ...AND OUT COME THE WOLVES proves the band knows their fans and can still live by their causes. They're self-proclaimed "Roots Radicals," but this is a '90s band. "Lock, Stop, And Gone" is crammed with details of modern L.A., where there's "a fire on the corner and it's never gonna stop" and where "the killer in the neighborhood never got caught." There's also bewilderment at the fact that the punk that was sure to keep them on the fringes is a high-profile career now--"too much attention unavoidably destroyed us," they claim on "Journey To The End Of East Bay."

Throughout ...AND OUT COME THE WOLVES, Rancid keep their edge. They won't succumb to rehashing punk, instead giving it new life through their uncompromising songs. With so many '90s new-jack punks on the scene, Rancid are the real thing--not a band jumping on a bandwagon, or one that waited around for a style to be hip again, but true originals.

Spin (5/01, pp.110,112) - Ranked #35 in Spin's "50 Most Essential Punk Records".

Spin (12/95, p.62) - Ranked #10 on Spin's list of the `20 Best Albums Of '95.'

Entertainment Weekly (12/29/95-1/5/96, p.132) - Ranked #6 on EW's Top 10 Albums Of 1995 - "...Rancid recalls a time when punk was less about safety pins than it was about bristling, blow-the-roof-off anthems..."

Q (10/95, p.125) - 3 Stars - Good - "...they look most likely to cement their country's nascent punk revolution..."

Alternative Press (3/02, p.96) - Included in AP's "Essential Punk Influences '02 Style" - "...The sound of 4 street-bred musicians with punk in their jeans - and its post-Clash mix of ska and scruff was catchy as hell..."

Village Voice (2/20/96) - Ranked #16 in Village Voice's 1995 Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll.

NME (Magazine) (8/26/95, p.47) - 7 (out of 10) - "...the allure of sulphate riffage coupled with traces of dub and a sensation that all is not quite well with the world is quite considerable....a thousand chugging riffs unearthed since 1978, and most of them are fairly excellent [or] quite awesomely ridiculous..."