Dropkick Murphys singer-bassist Ken Casey has no shortage of things to be thrilled about when the Georgia Straight reaches him in Boston, also known as North America’s unofficial City of Champions. Right at the top of the list is the Boston Bruins’ recent Stanley Cup win at the expense of the Vancouver Canucks.

What’s made that victory extra sweet is that Casey—who’s a Bruins season-ticket holder—was more involved than the average fan. Giving you a good idea of his stature in Beantown, the team helped him score seats for Game 1 of the finals in Vancouver. He was also lucky enough to be at Rogers Arena for Boston’s Game 7 win, and, even better, he didn’t have to restrict his celebrating to the stands.

“I got a photo on the ice of me holding the cup, and then I got to hold it in the locker room again—it was awesome,” says the Murphys cofrontman, on the line from home. “I figured I’d get to hold it before the end of the night, but never thought I’d get to do it on the ice just after they won it. I walked out and there was a kid I know who works for the team holding it. I went to take a picture with my phone, and he was like, ”˜Hey, you hold it now,’ and gave it to me.”

Tellingly, Casey sounds just as revved up when talk eventually turns to the Dropkick Murphys’ seventh and latest studio album, Going Out in Style. The record has been, quite rightly, hailed as a Celtic-punk classic both by critics and—more importantly—by the band’s famously loyal fans. Funnily, given how powerful it turned out, there was no shortage of distractions leading up to its writing and recording.

The Murphys took an extended break after the release of 2007’s The Meanest of Times, with Casey, singer Al Barr, and bagpiper Josh “Scruffy” Wallace all happily adding children to their families. No doubt aware that four years might as well be 400 in these hyper-accelerated times, the band was determined to return to action with something epic. The result was a concept record telling the story of Cornelius “Connie” Larkin, a fictional Irish immigrant to America. Guest stars onboard to help tell the tale included the high-profile likes of NOFX’s Fat Mike and Bruce Springsteen.

“It took a lot longer than usual,” Casey acknowledges, “but when you go at that pace of write, record, tour, write, record, tour every couple of years, you need extra time to put out a really great record. This band will never put out a record for the sake of getting it done and getting it out, so we decided to stop and smell the roses for a little bit. After taking that long, and making people wait, the disappointment would be that much worse if you handed them a pile of crap. I’m really happy that we feel like we really delivered.”

Musically, Going Out in Style finds the Murphys going above and beyond to branch out from their street-punk beginnings. Those looking for fast and loud won’t be entirely disappointed, with the triple-time “Sunday Hardcore Matinee” and bagpipe-powered “Deeds Not Words” guaranteed to lead to casualties in the mosh pit. Most punishing of all is the bloody-knuckled howitzer of a title track, which, impossibly, is every bit as brilliant as its Irish-wake-themed video, in which legendary boxer Micky Ward and the Boston Bruins’ Bobby Orr, Milan Lucic, and Shawn Thornton all turn in cameo appearances.

More than ever, though, the Murphys have become ace players when it comes time to dial things down, which they do here on last-call sing-alongs such as “Cruel” and “The Irish Rover”. Somewhere along the line, the group became just as accomplished when playing traditional Celtic folk as when abusing the Marshalls.

“Where I notice that there’s been a lot of musical progression in the band is with some of the stuff that I feel most proud of playing,” Casey says. “Songs like ”˜Cruel’ and ”˜Broken Hymns’ are ones where it gets quiet. We never wanted quiet before—whenever we’d talk about bringing things down, everyone would be like, ”˜No, no, we shouldn’t do that.’ What we realize now is that, if you can make things quiet, it gets all the more powerful when you make it loud again.

“We’re getting better at the little nuances,” he continues. “ ”˜The Irish Rover’ is a real benchmark for us, because we were always like, “Whoa—you can never touch Ronnie Drew and the Dubliners and the Pogues doing that.’ This time I was like, ”˜I think we can. We’re going to put a different twist on it, but we can do it.’ ”

And then there’s Cornelius Larkin, whom the Murphys created with Boston-raised author Michael Patrick MacDonald, who’s been busy turning the story into a book scheduled for release sometime this summer. Going Out in Style finds Casey and his bandmates—the lineup rounded out by drummer Matt Kelly, guitarist James Lynch, guitarist-accordianist Tim Brennan, and multi-instrumentalist Jeff DaRosa—ruminating on everything from the character’s bright-eyed voyage overseas to his wake. Along the way, the songs tackle everything from true love (the traditional “Peg o’ My Heart”) and strong marriages (“1953”) to labour strife (“Take ’Em Down”) and the importance of always fighting the good fight (“Memorial Day”).

The band leaves enough holes in the plot for listeners to connect the dots as to how all this plays into Larkin’s life. The truly curious, though, would do well to grill the Dropkicks over a pint at McGreevy’s, the Boston punk-rock sports bar that Casey had a hand in restoring and opening. After all, Larkin’s story is also the band’s story, with extended families and friends contributing their fair share of colour.

“Take ”˜1953’—that’s about James’s grandparents coming over from Ireland,” Casey says. “Not long after getting here, his grandfather volunteered for the Korean War, was wounded, and got a Purple Heart, but still wasn’t even a citizen of the U.S. That’s kind of the story of his grandparents meeting, kind of a tale of Irish-American immigrants. My family’s story is kind of similar to James’s family’s—they have universal themes that tie them together. So we said, ”˜Let’s focus them all and have them be about one character.’ ”

So while this chapter of Cornelius Larkin’s life would seem to be closed with the release of Going Out in Style, his story is in many ways far from over.

The Dropkick Murphys play the Commodore Ballroom on Saturday and Sunday (June 25 and 26).