Veteran rap-rock band P.O.D. have released "Rockin' With The Best," the second single from their upcoming 10th studio album, Circles, which comes out on November 16. The album also features the previously released track "Soundboy Killa."

The song is rooted around a loose backbeat and a repetitive funky hook that starts on a distorted bass before the guitar joins in. "Who rocks the party that rocks the party?" the band sing in the chorus. Sonny Sandoval sounds as hungry as ever, attacking his verses with precision and flow reminiscent of Rage Against The Machine's Zack de la Rocha.

"'Rockin' With The Best' is direct, raw and in-your-face, unapologetic sound that has been pioneered by P.O.D. The only question is whether or not you know how to get down with it," says singer Sonny Sandoval.

After two decades of album releases, one might think P.O.D. had settled into a formula that was tried and true. However, the Sacramento band has never taken the easy road or compromised. So for Circles, instead of bringing completed songs into the studio, the band went in with just a few riffs and hammered the songs out in a collaborative manner.

"If you listen to [P.O.D.'s] early stuff from even early '90s, we had a DJ; we were mixing in certain sounds — mixed reggae music and punk and hardcore and rock and even poppy stuff — so it's not like a surprise [that we're doing something different]," Sandoval told Audio Ink Radio. "But on this record, we worked with the Heavy (the Los Angeles-based production/songwriting team consisting of Jason Bell and Jordan Miller). And this is the first time that we really kind went in the studio vulnerable and open for more of a writing session, whereas we've always written our own music before. We still wrote our music, but it was more open to change, or at least them adding kind of their feel to it."

P.O.D. purposely chose to work with a team that wasn't used to collaborating with guitar-based hard rock or metal bands in order to keep the process fresh and surprising. "These guys worked with a bunch of pop bands — they just did the Dirty Heads — and they just have more of a… I was gonna say 'younger,' but just more of a cleaner, poppier tone to it," Sandoval said. "So we went in really open-minded, and then, here we are at the end of the record, and we're, like, 'Man, we don't even have that many heavy songs.' Everything is fun — it's fun, it's experimental when it comes to programming and some drum loops and stuff like that. We've done that before, but it was always kind of hidden, whereas now it's, like, a whole verse could be just an electronic bass or a drum kit. So it's fun, it's catchy, and I definitely think it's just P.O.D. 2018."

Circles tracklist:

01. Rockin' With The Best
02. Always Southern California
03. Circles
04. Panic Attack
05. On The Radio
06. Fly Away
07. Listening For The Silence
08. Dreaming
09. Domino
10. Soundboy Killa
11. Home

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