Kill Your Idols - From Companionship To Competition

  by Daniel Cressey

published: 7 / 2 / 2005

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Review

A fearsome blast this. Kill Your Idols have served up a slice of hardcore right at the extremes of punk. The guitarist especially deserves a major amount of praise for holding it all together with precision riffing that actually wouldn’t be out of place on a Metallica record. It goes without saying that Kill Your Idols are pissed off. You have to be angry if you’re in this kind of a band – happy hardcore is something else entirely. As the title implies this album spends a large percentage of its short running time on the subject of the scene, and its problems. The title track is all about how punk has been commercialised to the point that there’s not really any camaraderie anymore – “it’s supposed to be a lifestyle, not a fad”. Pop-punk has taken root with teens who want to hear about girls and, well whatever it is the latest disposable Green Day-lite sing about. Kill Your Idols are a bit more grown up, and a hell of a lot angrier. “I don’t know why I care, I really don’t know why,” sings vocalist Andy. “This is my way of life, not something you buy.” 'From Companionship to Competition' is an unrelenting aural assault. A heavy, heavy, price will be extracted for listening to this but it’s well worth it. The beating your ears take is like the sweat from a particularly heavy exercise regime. The trouble it takes to do it is an integral part of why it’s worth doing. And anyway it has been a while since anyone gave a track a title so simply truthful as ‘Only Dicks Don’t Like Black Flag’.

Track Listing:-

1 Intro / Blown Up, Burnt Out
2 Stuck In A Rut
3 I Hate My Guts
4 20 Bucks
5 Only Dicks Don't Like Black Flag
6 From Companionship to Competition
7 Your Wish Is My Command
8 We've Tried Nothing And We're All Out Of Ideas
9 Miserable And Satisfied
10 Make Up Your Minds
11 15 Minutes
12 I'll Call You Back
13 Still Pist
14 Looking Back