Western Addiction–Cognicide
Fat Wreck Chords
Listening to this CD made me want to go out and buy a Black Flag album. I think these guys will take that as a compliment. After all, Western Addiction did name a song, “The Church of Black Flag.”
It’s not just the name and sound that make me think of Rollins & co., though. After all, this is a record titled Cognicide, which I think was just a trick to make them sound smart and for fans to feel dumb, but their lyrics live up to it. (They define the word as “thinking something to death,” and I’ll leave it at that.) Though a read-through of the lyric sheet might seem like they’ve tried to throw in as many vocabulary words as possible, the words are screamed with good old heartfelt pissed-off punk rock anger, and that always helps. And you can believe the opening line of the record’s opening song: “In my head it makes perfect sense.”
This is the latest chapter in Fat Wreck’s rapidly diversifying range of bands. It’s nice to see them branching out. Western Addiction will be touring some with Propagandhi, and if you needed a stronger recommendation than that, I’ll fall back once again on their own words. “In the church where Black Flag resides/There’s no profit, no success, just pride.”
