Drug Church: Prude

Drug Church have just about perfected the art of enhancing civic vitality.

While Patrick Kindlon has explored the frayed ends of post-hardcore with lynchpins Self Defense Family, spearheading Drug Church alongside guitarists Nick Cogan and Cory Galusha, bassist Patrick Wynne and drummer Chris Villeneuve, sees the DIY veteran mixing fun with fury and finding wonderful results.

Like fellow punk-inspired post-hardcore speedsters Turnstile and Touché Amoré, Drug Church are the lexicon of what the genre stands for in 2024. More direct with a stronger whiff of melody, it’s a recipe that has an uncanny knack of scratching an itch you thought you never had. In Drug Church’s case, they breach certain parts of the mind with a galloping force that makes you feel ten feet tall.

Touche Amore – Spiral in a Straight Line

On their fifth album, Prude, Drug Church make a huge stride. It’s the album they’ve been threatening to make, and while 2022’s Hygiene was another strong statement, it lacked the consistent, punchy weight on offer here.

Prude is something to really get into your ears. Heads phones are a must, and the stomping grooves of Mad Care confirm as much. A song that is centered on the youthful glory days that you think will never end, it’s the first of many street level volleys Drug Church emit. The flickering knife fight that is Myopic follows a similar trajectory as the protagonist navigates through the labyrinth of life not sweating the small stuff (“Cynical/ Not bitterness / Love my girl and friendships”).

Of course, Drug Church keep in check with reality, and the crunching groan of Demolition Man sees Kindlon exploring the opposite end of the spectrum, as a bitter reality takes hold. Rendering mankind as a husk, using rudderless boats as composites to get his point across, with a line like “We can confirm that there’s no plan”, Kindlon exposes the ominous realities the world is face with.

Meanwhile, with chiming nightscapes and big-hearted power chords, Hey Listen is the post-hardcore endorphin rush Drug Church have always been capable of. They just about deliver their best song here with Chow running it a very close second. “No deep dives / Into shallow minds” screams Kindlon on the latter, taking aim at tech and people’s constant need to be liked by any means necessary. It’s this kind of sharp sloganeering that the world needs more of. Sonically, it’s Drug Church taking flight like never before.

Abandoncy: Assailable//Agonism

Thematically, Kindlon hasn’t sounded so assured, stretching his remit with the snide humour of a person sitting at the end of the bar watching everything unfold. Firstly with Business Ethics – a tale centred around a self-kidnap scheme, as Drug Church explore the underbelly of commerce through the haze of narcotics. Slide 2 recounts a similar tale about a liquor store robbery and, of course, it all goes horribly wrong.

Then there’s the swelling siren call of Yankee Trails, which sees Kindlon channelling his ideas through yet another portal. From the perspective of one of life’s perennial strugglers, their only crutch is booze and drugs (“The devil offers his curse / He says hey! Why don’t you get yourself new trouble”). While it’s a similar tale previously mastered by Craig Finn, Kindlon does it every bit of justice.

The lurching closer, Peer Review, hits the same nerve as Yankee Trails, this time via someone on their moral high horse impervious to the hard times of those around them. As Kindlan sings “Too much time inside your head/ You lose sight of what it is” it’s a salient point, and something all of us have been guilty during this current era. That’s why Drug Church have always hit the way they have. Kindlon has always taken the get-to-know-your-neighbour approach, and it’s this attitude which helps build communities. It’s how Drug Church have ultimately built theirs, and Prude is further evidence of that.

Prude is out now via Pure Noise Records. Purchase from Bandcamp.