Reviews

You have to hand it to Kill Your Idols - through a slew of trends over the years, the band always kept with that straightforward hardcore sound. That sound is in large part responsible for the band's loyal fan base, but it's also responsible for the often monotonous feeling that comes with many of their albums, well-written or not. Which is why, despite putting together a great collection of 38 rarities and out-of-print tracks for a mere $12 in Something Started Here, Kill Your Idols can still seem a bit bland at points on their farewell to fans.

It's an interesting choice to wrap up a twelve-year career, going the rarities route instead of some sort of "greatest" collection. Really, it's a smart idea for a band of this caliber. Instead of regurgitating songs that every fan already owns, the band has put together the hard-to-find material for longtime fans that may have missed it along the way.

The assortment of tracks from these Long Islanders is fairly diverse hardcore, as far as Kill Your Idols goes, which is bound to happen when a career-spanning collection is put together. Tracks are organized by recording session, with liner notes written by Gary and Andy for each section. Quite a few tracks also came from split CDs, so there are plenty of covers of bands like Sheer Terror, S.O.A., Jawbreaker, and Negative Approach.

Ultimately, for the hardcore Kill Your Idols fan that has all the major releases (who it is really designed for), this is a great collection, packed with over an hour of material, ranging from decent to good. For anyone else, it's definitely not bad; after all, this is one of Long Island's finest hardcore acts, but it might be worthwhile to check out some of their other releases first.