Rejected Youth – Fuck the Contest CD review

Punk bands get a load of stick and get branded as “Those guys with spiky hair, who can’t really play their instruments and just play noise”, when in fact what the haters don’t realise is that punk is one of the hardest types of music to play and takes real skill and balls to perform it. Looking like the bastard spawn of U.K Subs and Rancid, German four piece Rejected Youth both look the part and sound the part. Presenting Fuck the Contest, Rejected Youth’s 5th full studio album; an album packed full of anarchy, angst and downright awesome songs.  With 14 brilliant punk rock anthems which bring the album to just over 30 minutes long, Rejected Youth are bringing punk rock back into fashion and although the haters will still hate, the rest of the world are going to love it.

With an average song length of around 2 and a half minutes, Rejected Youth have no problem with keeping the listener hooked throughout Fuck the Contest, caressing the listeners ears with razor sharp guitar riffs, chant along choruses and bouncy melody lines in tracks such as ‘Take It Back’, ‘Dangerous Times’ and ‘Need Your Love’. The best bit about punk songs is that they can gobsmack the listener no matter how short the song and with Rejected Youth’s 21st  century post hardcore twist thrown into the mix, Fuck the Contest is catchier than any punk album released to date. Forget Sex Pistols and Stiff Little Fingers, Rejected Youth blows them all out of the water!

Lead vocalist who is simply known as “Magneto” is one hell of a vocalist, putting the likes of Glenn Danzig, David Vanian and Jake Burns to shame. His voice is so authorative and powerful but still is able to master the softer end of the singing spectrum as well as the rough and raspy. He has to be one of the greatest punk singers of all time and without him; Rejected Youth would not be as good as they are.

From first glance of Fuck the Contest’s album artwork, you would be definitely surprised that Rejected Youth are a punk band. With some wannabe looking gangster, showing the brap sign in one hand while holding a skateboard in the other, you would think it was the latest Eminem album. The music may be brilliant, the bands look stylish, but seriously, Rejected Youth need to sort out the covers of their albums. They can be so misleading and generally have bugger all to do with the song title or any of the tracks on the album.

There isn’t a dull moment on Fuck the Contest and its Rejected Youth’s amazing song writing skills that make the tracks on this album as catchy and memorable as they are. Punk was big in the 70’s and 80’s. It peaked away in the 90’s, and now in the 21st century we are seeing its comeback in the form of Rejected Youth….. HELL YES! [8/10]

About Del Preston

So there I am, in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, at about 3 o'clock in the morning, looking for one thousand brown M&Ms to fill a brandy glass, or Ozzy wouldn't go on stage that night. So, Jeff Beck pops his head 'round the door, and mentions there's a little sweet shop on the edge of town. So - we go. And - it's closed. So there's me and Keith Moon and David Crosby, breaking into that little sweet shop, eh. Well, instead of a guard dog, they've got this bloody great big Bengal tiger. I managed to take out the tiger with a can of mace, but the shop owner and his son, that's a different story altogether. I had to beat them to death with their own shoes. Nasty business really. But sure enough, I got the M&Ms and Ozzy went on stage and did a great show.