Review: No Idols - Demo 2024

Friday

Cruising into the weekend before the family leaves for Disney World. Spent too much time this week with brain on cruise control, listening to politicians speak. Also spent too much time blankly scrolling through hardcore internet beefs. Very isolating to say the least. As much as I’ve always loved hardcore, I’ve always felt on the margins because I don’t want to participate in bullshit, and that’s what so much of the antics are. At one point, I was a wide-eyed teen that believed punk and hardcore were some sort of alternate reality and they held some sort of secret significant Utopia. But they largely mirror society at large, and some corners are even stupider. I guess that’s the key to survival, you gotta admit that what we do is stupid and pointless. Immerse ourselves in the things we enjoy and tell the other shit to take a hike.

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No Idols - Demo 2024 (Designated Moshers Unit)

Listening to this one, I had the thought that maybe I’d write a guide to the newer Designated Moshers Unit releases, but lo and behold, Vince snaked me. Good for him cuz he nailed it. No clue who’s in this band but it sounds like people that’ve been around the block. It’s perfect meat-and-potatoes hardcore. Maybe they’re named after The Fix song? Or maybe they’re big Tony Rettman fans? Who knows, certainly not me. The Bandcamp says nothing, but not in a Mysterious Guy Hardcore way. Let this shit speak for itself. The recording’s perfectly raw and crisp, walking the line without any missteps into big sound cleanliness. Bottles the blitzing energy of The Fix or early Poison Idea. Really, this is all I can ask for. More bands like this, as if it’s just that easy to choose to write a demo this good. And as I mentioned in my intro, lots of people in hardcore are dumb and/or have bad taste. Whatcha gonna do? Dig relentlessly until you turn up some diamonds. Sure, I’ve got that sort of sickness.