This Orchestral Version Of NOFX's 20-Minute Epic 'The Decline' Is Insane

Fifteen years ago, US skate-punk veterans NOFX released The Decline, a single-song EP whose blistering, politically biting title track ran for an incredible, genre-defying 18-and-a-half minutes.

Now, French drummer/composer/producer/DJ BAZ has stepped up the insanity another notch in celebration of the song's 15th birthday, arranging The Decline into a nearly 20-minute-long full orchestral composition, "just for the cause".

"This is a 'DIY' project," the video's YouTube synopsis explains. "BAZ wrote a special orchestral arrangement for this punk rock masterpiece and gathered 50 musicians to play it live, once, and totally for free."

The ensemble recorded their version of the song last month at the Conservatoire du Grand Nancy, in France, and among the instrumentation are first and second violins, viola, cello, double bass, trumpet, trombone, french horn, tuba, clarinet, oboe, flute, soprano saxophone, bassoon, timpani, cymbals and bass drum - so a few more than NOFX's two-geets-and-a-four-string set-up. As you might expect, BAZ's lush, instrumental version is ridiculously epic.

If you've got 20 minutes to spare - and it's worth putting aside the time - check out this modern-day classical masterpiece below.

And here's the original, for comparison's sake:

NOFX toured Australia last year on a trip littered with controversy, from altercations with stage invaders to frontman Fat Mike being sconned with a shoe while playing in Perth.