With local roots-punk heroes Larry and His Flask, the big question has shifted over the past couple of years as the band has transformed from a ragtag sextet of road warriors into a fast-rising, internationally touring act.

It is no longer “Are they going to make it?”

It’s now “Just how far are they going to take this thing?”

The possibilities of the answer have already expanded more than just about anyone could’ve imagined five years ago, when the Flask was a straightforward pub-punk band knocking around Central Oregon.

But their excellent and even-keeled new album, “By the Lamplight,” expands them even more.

“Lamplight” — due out Tuesday on the band’s new Cascadian Records label, with an album-release show tonight in Bend (see “If you go”) — is a big step forward in terms of songwriting and performance and a bigger step toward wider appeal for the Flask. The band’s once-ragged aesthetic is mostly gone, replaced by precisely picked country, folk and bluegrass filtered through a punk — but now grown-up punk — prism.

To be sure, fans of the group’s famously kinetic live show still have plenty to thrash around to. “Pandemonium” is a rousing stringband rocker that begins with tight barbershop-style harmonies and ends with a coda that sounds like the Beatles high on horns. “Barleywine Bump” clomps around like a hobo with a megaphone, at least until the chorus comes soaring in. “Home Of The Slave” is punkgrass, pure and simple, powered by light-speed banjo pickin’.

But elsewhere, you can practically hear the band’s songwriting skills in bloom. “The Battle for Clear Sight” is classic Flask, imbued with a pop sensibility that suggests — dare I say it — Mumford-ian momentum. The slow crescendo of “Cruel Twist of Fate” sounds straight out of the Decemberists’ proggy story-song book (with a vastly different vocalist, of course).

And then there’s “Gone From You” and “All That We’ve Seen,” two slow, somber numbers written and performed (mostly) solo by guitarist Ian Cook, who has a natural knack for interesting melody that stands out even more when stripped of full-band arrangements.

Those two songs are stunners; they deliver on the promise of “Slow It Down,” the final track on the band’s 2011 album “All That We Know.” And when combined with the stylistic variety found elsewhere on “Lamplight,” they point the way to a bright future for Larry and His Flask, beyond the riotous, sweat-soaked shows on which they’ve made their name.

Just how far are they going to take this thing? “By the Lamplight” suggests the answer may be farther than previously thought.