Some aging hardcore fans were stirred by the idea of a reunion album by Seattle’s the Fartz, the city’s earliest hardcore band of note. (The reunion, naturally, doesn’t include drummer Duff “Rose” McKagan, later much better-known as the rhythm guitarist in Guns N’ Roses.) However, What’s in a Name is a disappointment on most levels. Nearly all of the 15 tracks (everything except covers of Black Sabbath’s “Children of the Grave” and Motörhead’s “Iron Fist”) are old Fartz songs available in their original versions on the compilation Because This Fuckin’ World Still Stinks, and there’s nothing particularly different about these new versions except that Jack Endino’s production is slightly cleaner. Singer Blaine Cook’s voice is even more shot than it used to be, making the strident but simplistic political pronouncements of his lyrics more or less unintelligible. There’s nothing actively bad on What’s in a Name — anyone who dug the earlier Fartz records will like this one just as much — but there’s absolutely nothing new here, and one finally has to wonder what reason this album has to exist. – Stewart Mason
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