“Me and Woody wanted to write a song as if we were 17 years old again,” Pepper explains. “We even made a seven-inch for it.”

Said seven-inch, released during their Mexico/South American tour last month, is an early ’80s punk throwback, complete with a black and white photo collage and a FEAR cover on the flipside. It’s a ripper.

“As we went on, we had such a crazy plethora of songs, it was almost like two different directions,” Pepper says. “We knew we had to split it into two different albums. Then we came up with this concept.”

The concept happens to be the title of the record. It’s called “Good God / Baad Man”.

“Our producer, Warren Riker, kept calling it ‘Dark Side Of The Doom’,” recalls Pepper. “In my head, it’s a weird love letter to all things rock ‘n’ roll. We used that for the freedom to go in different directions. Each album is its own tiny universe and has its own identity. ‘Good God’ leans toward the heavier/pissed end of the spectrum. ‘Baad Man’ is more on the throwdown rock scope. As we went along, it became clear which songs went on which album.”

They brought in drummer Stanton Moore, who played on CORROSION OF CONFORMITY‘s 2005 album “In The Arms Of God”. They brought in bassist Bobby “Rock” Landgraf, who did time with Pepper in New Orleans heavyweights DOWN when he wasn’t terrorizing the locals in his own band HONKY.

“With a lot of these songs, we’re trying to make Reed Mullin proud,” Pepper says. “He was a badass, and a one-of-a-kind drummer. And the stakes were high.”

“Good God / Baad Man” track listing:

Album 1

01. Good God? / Final Dawn
02. You Or Me
03. Gimme Some Moore
04. The Handler
05. Bedouin’s Hand
06. Run For Your Life

Album 2

07. Baad Man
08. Lose Yourself
09. Mandra Sonos
10. Asleep On The Killing Floor
11. Handcuff County
12. Swallowing The Anchor
13. Brickman
14. Forever Amplified