First things first: Potemkin villages were fake riverbank settlements supposedly built by the evil Russian field marshal to impress Catherine II with the value of her conquest during a tour of the Crimea in 1787. These days, however, the term is used in a political context to describe any self-serving artifice created to conceal a potentially damaging situation -- like, say, crafting an elaborate tale about weapons of mass destruction in order to justify unlawfully invading another country. OK.

Now, add a snappy pop-culture reference from Ike and Tina's Nutbush City Limits (which also serves, we presume, as a subliminal swipe at Dubya) and you've got the title of Propagandhi's long-awaited fourth full-length. But you've also got a lot more than that; you've got the band's modus operandi and raison d'etre in a nutshell (if not a Nutbush). Which is: They want to make you think.

Oh sure, these veteran speed-punk demigods may want you to have a good time. They may want you to be entertained. They may want to make you laugh. They may even want to rock you like a huricayeene from time to time. But mostly, you get the sense they want you to shut up, listen up and think about something other than your self-centred, self-satisfied, self-righteous life for one damn minute. And if that means making you Google Potemkin instead of porn for once in order to understand the handle of their new disc, well, that's a good start.

Of course, that's just the beginning. You'll find plenty more vegan food for thought (and inspiration for action) on the 41-minute Potemkin City Limits, in stores Tuesday. Picking up about where they left off on their incendiary 2001 polemic Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes, these hyperfast, hyperliterate and hypercritical rabble-rousers fire off another dozen salvos of smartly crafted reasoning and sharply pointed political satire.

Few targets are left untorched by their scorched-earth policy. A Speculative Fiction imagines the Great White North rising up like David against our southern Goliath; Bringer of Greater Things connects the dots between generations of aboriginal suffering at white hands; Rock for Sustainable Capitalism takes aim at careerist punks and commodified rebellion; Name and Address Withheld examines the war in Iraq; Superbowl Patriot XXXVI blitzes half-time propaganda; Iteration envisions Rummy in an orange jumpsuit at his own Nuremberg trial; and Fedallah's Hearse skewers sellout artists and fawning critics with barbs pointed enough to send music writers into spasms of paranoia.

Propagandhi haven't gone soft on the musical side of the equation, either. Their blackly humourous broadsides and chorus-free diatribes are delivered with a soaring, anthemic bravado that can be screamed in the beer-stained punk bunker or bellowed from the top of the barricades.

Either way, it all comes wrapped in a flag of churning, intense techno-thrash that's firmly planted in a no-man's land between rabble-rousing hardcore and hair-whipping speed-metal.

Truth is, sometimes these guys sound way more like vintage Anthrax than they would probably care to admit -- that's Anthrax the band, not the letter-borne poison. Though when it comes to Propagandhi, admittedly you can never be too sure.

Here's something you can take to the bank: Potemkin City Limits is complex, relentless, challenging and uncompromising. In other words, it's your typical Propagandhi album.

And as usual, whether or not you buy their message, it's impossible to ignore the messengers. So don't even think about it.

Track Listing:

1. Speculative Fiction
2. Fixed Frequencies
3. Fedallah's Hearse
4. Cut Into The Earth
5. Bringer Of Greater Things
6. Jugend Marschiert
7. Rock For Sustainable Capitalism
8. Impending Halfhead
9. Life At Disconnect
10. Name And Address Withheld
11. Superbowl Patriot XXXVI
12. Iteration