No IdolsNo Idols from Syracuse, NY features ex members of The Disaster, The Funeral and Marakech, the front man Ryan Canavan (ex-The Funeral) is actually the owner of Hex Records. Their previous material includes a tape demo, and a s/t 7" that they put out on Grave Mistake Records, which saw the band playing a rock-n-roll/hardcore hybrid, saturated with rocked out anthems and clever time change ups. Their latest offering shows the band branching out and experimenting with their sound a bit. This release is much heavier and blunt than anything they’ve previously released, and also features more guitar effects in terms of delay. When it comes down to it, you can’t lump this band into any one specific category, they are definitely hardcore in the roots but they don’t sound like any particular type of hardcore that I’ve ever heard. It’s like Black Flag and Unbroken ran a train on Cursed and out come this demented organism. Sandwiched between the opening and closing track that features droning feedback and distortion are 9 tracks of frenzied fury. There is everything from rocked out runs, crazy time changes, slabs of breakdowns, scathing dissonant textures with hardcore like barks and shouts. There is also a good amount of gang chants which add another dimension to a riot like sound scape that they create. Before you know it, the 23 minutes have lapsed and the first thing that pops into your head is the repeat button. This album is one of those you have to listen to over and over again to really appreciate everything that is going on in the music. As great as the actual music is, the lyrics really bring this album up another notch. Ryan effectively weaves in out and of intelligent thoughts from track to track speaking on everything he deems worthy. By looking at the cover art with the guy holding a shottie looking at a fire blaze before him and the layout which features some globalist symbols such as the all seeing eye that sits atop the pyramid I immediately assumed that this was going to have some illuminati/globalist influenced lyrics, to my knowledge it doesn’t seem that way unless there’s something that I missed. The production is more than stellar, perfect tone control and a real full and dense recording helps the drums and bass pound their way through your audio speakers.
Rating: 4/5 (I could’ve done without the 3 minutes of droning which makes this essentially a 9 track 20 minute long full length, which to my standards is a EP)
Songs worthy of replay: Stencil City, Eye of the Shitstorm, Return of the Apparition
Thesis: A unique brand of hardcore inspired dirty rock with off the wall time changes sure to please anyone looking for something new.