Insane Poetry: Cyco: The Snuff Reels Album Review!
Music Review:
You know how now and then you come across an album which dares to be so different? That album which stomps all over everything else you’ve listened to by that artist, and everything else you’ve listened to around that time. Then you realise the album is so bloody underground that hardly anyone else will hear it.
Do you feel like this album deserves more? Or do you chuckle as you comprehend that you are part of a certain cult whom can sink deep into the words and sounds, knowing you will perhaps be the only one for miles around.
Welcome to a later (2008) album by Horrorcore Hip Hop artist, Insane Poetry. I reviewed an album when I.P. was actually a group, not basically a solo artist (see review here) and waxed lyrical about its merits. However, nothing on that can even closely match the creation which is Cyco: The Snuff Reels! When I bought it years ago, I played it to only a couple of close friends.
Produced by a man by the name of DJ Bless (who has an a.k.a. of Sutter Kain), this is a loud and vile heavy metal sampling chaotic landscape which complements the voice of our man, Psycho (Now Cyco), wherein, Sutter Kain’s material (August Underground, etcetera) is just “Kill Kill” and “Bitch” bollocks which unfortunately swept over the Hip Hop culture years ago. Cyco loses absolutely none of his in-yer-face reality he displayed on his earlier album.
After a quick intro which reminded me of a Manic Street Preachers, Holy Bible, era kind of thing, we are plunged straight into the madness. Gods of War is hard! I mean, it’s fucking hard!!!! “We are the Gods of War, yes the carnivores, possessed of shark teeth, we got piranha jaws!…..” Cyco flows easily over a very dark metal loop as he does his horror thing. Things have moved on, the slayings are so much more detailed these days.
I do wish Sutter Kain would sod off with his ‘try to be shocking’ racism and violence threatening bullshit lines here and there on the album (I think he’s either a parody of a lot of successful ‘rappers’ or just a cock). Leave it to Cyco to pull Jihad, into a frenzy. “Going inside the mind of a suicide bomber….” Afterwards, there’s a lengthy George Bush speech which is rather twisted. More so with the harpsichord sample running behind it (there’s a second part later), then it’s into the maelstrom of Welcome 2 America which rips the fashion, the money, the mess, of America! “George Bush, or should I call him Adolf?” It’s out of control! Cyco runs down 911, the CIA, Obama, and all of this over sheer white noise (check the track below).
Memoirs of a Cyco is rather calm considering everything before. He takes the listener on a journey through his whole recording career since the early ’90s. Then, like a train picking up the pace before a collision and destruction, the album starts to pick up even more from You Cannot Save Me.
There isn’t a Hip Hop album I have heard which is like this one. When Bullet 4 My Valentine pops up, we are back in Grim Reality territory as a relationship melts “You were my soul mate, why did you do this?” He almost cries as it ends and his child is caught in a tug of war. The music is toned down, as she cheats on him, laughs at him. He tries to keep things together but you can feel his anger, his heartbroken words drip with emotion. This is the peak of The Snuff Reels.
My Sweet Misery, sampling Brand New, strips away the metal and exposes his soul. Almost a sequel to the prior track as a man falls into crime and murder. The production on this and Bullet 4 My Valentine can get into you whether you like Hip Hop or not. This is sheer torment. “Look ma, I’m strapped to this gurney, for the lethal injection, because I’m demon infested…”
The Final Conflict is a fitting ending as it covers a battle between heaven and hell in one man who is confused by the religion he witnessed as a child. “It’s an all out war for my sanity, is it why I cannot trust anyone in my family?” It made him a paranoid person on the receiving end of life itself.
Truly dark and very, very, grim. The Snuff Reels is a few miles ahead of his other works, down a long country lane overlooked by skulls on trees. DJ Bless is an exceptional producer. Mostly consisting of simple loops and beats, it’s his ear for what makes an impact which layers and fleshes out the album. He calls this, Ghetto Metal, and that tag suits it to perfection. Bizarre that this chap has also worked with Kanye West, and R Kelly to name just two of the many.
Cyco has continued releasing very underground tracks, and has featured on many other albums by other similar Horrorcore artists. This man is a force which will never go away. The Snuff Reels is definitely recommended, though it’s very hard to get a hold of nowadays unfortunately.
Album Info:
Band: Sutter Kain presents Insane Poetry
Album: Cyco: The Snuff Reels
Members: DJ Bless a.k.a. Sutter Kain (Production, Vocals) Cyco (Vocals)
Year: 2008
Country: USA
Produced by: Robert (DJ Bless) Evans
Mastering: Robert (DJ Bless) Evans
Runtime: 55min 53sec
Label: Never So Deep
Official Website: http://nsddigital.com
Track Listing:
1. Deliver Us From Evil
2. Gods of War
3. Jihad
4. Satanism & the CIA pt 1
5. Welcome to America
6. There Will Be Blood
7. Satanism & the CIA pt 2
8. Memoirs of a Cyco
9. Trails of Blood
10. Interlude
11. You Can Not Save Me
12. Bullet 4 My Valentine
13. My Sweet Misery
14. The Final Conflict (Intro)
15. The Final Conflict