Four Fists debut full-length album 6666 is finally here. The group — Astronautalis and P.O.S — has been evolving for almost fifteen years. "This is something Stef and I have been working on and dreaming about since we became friends in 2004," says Astronautalis, who moved to Minneapolis in 2011. Two years later, the first Four Fists 7" came out.

Since that first release five years ago, both artists' perspectives have changed. Any full-length Four Fists release would need to account for the artists transitions from young-and-hungry firebrands into career musicians with increasingly adult outlooks.

6666 pools their talents and experiences to create a work that bristles with a collective tension. "It's way easier working with friends," says Stef. "It gets your juice moving quick. I think with what's happened with our pairing, we have little chunks of each other that don't come out in our own music."

Their friendship freed them up to build, tear down, rework, and upend their ideas, with the guiding hand of Dutch producer/remixer Subp Yao giving them the leeway to destroy their beats in order to make them even stronger.

P.O.S explained at Rock the Garden earlier this year: "I think we've been talking about it and working on it very slowly over like, five, six years, and then scrapped everything we had and just sat down and like pounded it out over a couple sessions this last year."

In other words, 6666 bangs, but in the service of something greater than entry-level defiance. There's a vibe that seems to draw from the life of The Clash's Joe Strummer, who's namechecked more than once on the album as a young punk iconoclast growing into a reflective humanist. The protests still hold weight: cops threaten even the law-abiding, hustlers don't do enough to spread the wealth, and there's no point waiting for someone to save you.

6666 is available everywhere starting Friday, October 12 at midnight EDT. Order a copy form Doomtree's store, Bandcamp or stream the album on Apple Music or Spotify.

Four Fists kick off their U.S. and European tour tonight, October 11 at Icehouse in Minneapolis.

The duo recorded a studio session at The Current that will air on Wednesday, October 17 at 10 p.m. on The Message.