Band: Necro Album: Death Rap Label: Psycho+Logical-Records Rating: 7.5/10 Website: http://www.necrohiphop.com BUY NOW!

Brooklyn, New York's Necro is the self-proclaimed progenitor of a musical style known as death rap. After releasing several albums with lyrical content fitting for any gore grind or death metal album, it is safe to say Necro's proclamation is entirely truthful. Besides penning sociopathic scenarios, Necro is a diehard metal fan. His raps often allude to metal legends all across the spectrum, and starting with the "Pre-Fix for Death" album, he brings in a few of those legends to metalize his rhymes. Necro's latest album, appropriately titled "Death Rap," features guest spots by such celebrated metal artists as Scott Ian of Anthrax, Brain Fair of Shadows Fall, Mike Smith of Suffocation, ex-Megadeth bassist Dave Ellefson, and Mark Morton of Lamb of God. The unholy trinity of Smith/Fair/Morton on the Suffocation-alluding title "Suffocated to Death by God's Shadow" is the fastest and most brutal track performed by his metallic guests. Smith pulls off the type of blasts you would expect from Suffocation's original drummer. Brain Fair of Shadows Fall provides the vocal fair during the chorus parts, and Mark Morton chugs the strings of his guitar during death-metal like breaks and speed picks during Smith's fast blasts. Necro pushes the pace of his rhymes more than ever before during these fast parts "Belligerent Gangsters" relies entirely on rap beats, although Harley Flanagan of the Cro-Mags adds a touch of hardcore with his vocals during the chorus lines. Anchored by Scott Ian's slow chugging riffing, "Evil Rules" is the other truly-metal track. Ray Adler's vocal lines, "Death rap, extreme violence and brutal metal, cut your head off with a machete, evil rules!" add an old school metal element not seen on his older albums, as well as bringing a catchy vocal line. Only two of the fourteen tracks contain metal instrumentation, so beware of this album if the three letters, r-a-p makes you sick to your stomach. The album title doesn't lie, though, this is death rap. He always manages to bring a fresh twist to macabre topics such as serial murder and the occult, although not in a thematic way, just in passing. Also, how often do rappers reference Sepultura, Obituary, Exodus, Cro-Mags, Nuclear Blast and other names associated with the metal world? "Mutilate the Beat" is a rap track with some of the best metal mentions on the album. "Spiritual Healing, satanic, walking on ceilings" and "fagnonymous, kill you like Eurononymous…forever death like Trevor Peres," are a couple of the better metal rhymes on the album. "Death Rap" contains many highlights. Nefarious beats, death-caked grooves, black-humored rhymes and the countless metal references make for an entertaining listen. However, it is the weakest of his last three albums featuring metal guests. This album does not contain as much metal instrumentation as "The Circle of Tyrants" or "Pre-fix for Death," and he revisits some of earlier sayings, albeit some of his best rhymes, but hearing about Ogerish.com and Rotten.com doesn't pull as much weight the second time around. Still, Necro is one of the only rappers to boast metal head appeal without the Hot Topic, mall metal trendiness. All his albums are worth checking out, including the strictly rap ones. Darren Cowan Back to Reviews