The Batlord

For anyone anyone who doesn't know, Twiztid are sort of the heirs to the throne of ICP. They're pretty much the only other Psychopathic group I have any love for. After them the critics are perfectly justified in saying whatever they like about the rest of it. So, we'll start with their debut, which I'm reasonably familiar with.




Twiztid actually didn't wear the face paint back then, and I could be wrong, but I don't think they talked about juggalos either. Starting with the next album that all went out the window and they started towing the company line. From what I can tell it was around the late nineties-early 2000's that the whole juggalo thing really took off and Psychopathic Records became a business whose purpose was to take money from white trash that would have just spent it on dimebags and Zig Zags anyway. Since this was released in '97 I guess it was just a little too early to be caught in the jerkoff-fest. Good deal.

I must say, this album certainly goes for the throat from the word go. Gunfire and screams lead into "2nd Hand Smoke", a track of horrorcore fire that could probably win over at least a few critics. A few. Much of the album is made up of these kind of hard-hitting, high-energy tracks that are perfectly suited to a perpetually adolescent metalhead such as myself. Lyrical geniuses they may not be, but a song that seems to be loosely based on the movie Halloween, creatively titled "Murder Murder Murder", that includes animal mutilation, necrophilia, and masturbation pleases me nonetheless. Bitchin'.

I'm a terrible judge of rapping skills, but Twiztid aren't nearly as awful as ICP. They might just be in shouting distance of perfectly decent.

Oh wait, there was a juggalo reference. But it's in a cover of an ICP song so it doesn't count. Who covers rap songs anyway?

"85 Bucks an Hour" is one of the greatest things I've ever heard. It starts with Violent J from ICP throwing down a self-consciously terrible verse, even for him, where he proceeds to not rhyme, stop his verse to make a prank phone call, and best of all at one point he says "Psychopathic Records are geniuses/Get off our penises". Later on he comes back in on the track to make a "free-style" where he steadily loses speed as he struggles to come up with anything to say ("I kick free styles/For miles/My gold comes in piles/I picked up deer shit/And now I spit raps/I snap your neck/Cause my freestyles are fresh..."). Brilliant.

Last song, "Renditions of Reality" is a bit of a departure and shows a more melodic, gothic atmosphere than the grimy, lo-fi horrorcore of the rest of the album. Twiztid would explore this part of their sound more fully on the next album (with varying degrees of success [and by that I mean half the album sucked]). But it works on this song.

Fuck all of you, I'm buying this shit.

P.S. I have a warm, fuzzy place in my heart for Monoxide Child for his public love of cigarettes. Even if he does smoke Newports. Blech!

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Isbjørn

What are the good parts then?

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The Batlord

Well they only do that very occasionally. Most of the time they're bitching about rich people, cops, and rednecks. Or talking about killing them in graphic detail. But what I was saying is that their whole schtick could very easily have fallen on its face, but they somehow manage to sell it to the hilt just by the sheer force of their personalities.

It's easy to say that this song is juvenile, dumb, and the rapping is terrible, but if you actually listen to their performances they somehow (as far as I'm concerned) manage to overcome their own musical limitations with sheer charisma.

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The Batlord

Insane Clown Posse: Ringmaster

Up to ICP's second album and the second Joker's Card. You know, as much as the whole idea of the Joker's Cards and the different attractions of the Dark Carnival add a fun, offbeat element to the group they don't really do much with it. The only time they really go into the title character/attraction is in the intro. They go into different aspects of the Dark Carnival for one or two songs on an album but for the most part they kind of ignore the whole concept. On one of their later albums they actually used the skits in between some of the songs to tell a sort of story that culminated in the last song and it worked fairly well without making the whole album about the story. Why they didn't try something like this earlier I don't know.




Carnival of Carnage didn't quite sound like the finished product and had an old school gangsta rap vibe to it, but Ringmaster finally sounds like the ICP only I know and love. Bizarre, silly, and strangely compelling. I've been cracking out on my ICP records and my one Twiztid album for the last few days, so a journal idea that started as a lark has actually gotten me totally back into this whole shebang. I guess I should have seen this coming since I really did love them back in the day.

Last album introduced the concept of the Dark Carnival, which if you're unaware is actually a metaphor for heaven and hell. The titular character of this album, you know, the Ringmaster, is the leader of the Carnival and judges your soul upon entry. Apparently he's also supposed to be a metaphor for yourself or something. I think the dude from their next album, The Great Malenko, was supposed to be you too. Whatevs. I could give a shit about ICP's quasi-religious crap. I just find the fantasy element to be fun.

The album begins with "Wax Museum" which is the intro that every one of their albums starts with. Not that they all start with this intro, but they all have an intro. You know what I mean so you can go fuck yourself. Usually I find these tedious, overlong, and just plain awful, but this is rather cool. The carny music production gives an appropriate vibe and along with the narration really feels like an introduction, not only to the album, but to the Dark Carnival itself. I can actually imagine myself queued up at night, waiting to get into a carnival, unaware of what is to come. Maximum funnage.

And just like their other albums most of the rest of the songs ignore the Dark Carnival concept. The ones that do though actually sell it better than others. "My Fun House" tells the story of a "rich boy" trapped on a ride through Violent J's funhouse, where he is brutally punished for...being rich it seems, before being sent on to the Ringmaster. One thing that's vaguely annoying about ICP is that they try to use politically and socially conscious lyrics to justify what really just seems like bitterness and wealth envy. Still, it's a fun song that shows that J, while he may be a terrible rapper, actually has an underrated skill at story telling.

One thing I've noticed about ICP recently is that when they are firing on a cylinders they are actually quite good at making their limitations as rappers work for them. On "House of Mirrors", a song about a rich boy, of course, having his sins reflected back at him in yet another Dark Carnival attraction, the minimalist, monotone, droning verses actually give the song a palpable feeling of menace. Along with the dark, lo-fi production it has a nihilistic atmosphere that is pretty fantastic.

Most of the rest of the album is taken up with talking about tongue-in-cheek serial killing, sexing up bitches, whether they be fat, stinky, or on crack, committing atrocities on rednecks, and other assorted silliness. I definitely dig me some ICP but I'm surprised by just how much I'm feeling this album. It's bizarre as I could hope for, easily accessible and fun, and feels like their definitive album with its relative focus on the Carnival concept. This might just be shooting to the top of my "Need to buy" albums list.

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The Batlord

Twiztid: Freek Show

I actually own Twiztid's second album, so I'll probably have more to say on this album. I gotta say right off the bat though, ICP have had some cool album covers, and Mostasteless was...I don't know, not completely awful I guess. But this album's cover is just embarrassing. If you didn't know the mentality of their fans then now you do: morons who like to think they're listening to something subversive even though they don't even have the balls to listen to Slayer or Black Flag.




Like I said on my other Twiztid review, the problem with this album is that, while half the album is fairly fantastic, the other half is barely listenable. They'd obviously jumped onto the juggalo bandwagon that had been created by the previous few years of success by ICP...and others I guess. Honestly I'm piecing my history together more by release dates on albums than any real digging, but there are some obvious conclusions to make. Like this album.

On the previous album Twiztid had been without face paint. Obviously this has changed in the past three years. Since there's no real artistic reason I can think of why they would have done this...yeah. There was also a notable lack of any kind of mention of juggalos, except for a cover of an ICP song, but here it's shoved down our throats. And then there are the lyrics. Previously they had been a mix of horrorcore and gangsta rap that had been uninspired but fun as hell. Now we get whiny, sub-metalcore crap about being depressed and suicidal that is obviously being targeted at moody teenagers who can't even spell "quality control". But I could ignore all of that. A few mentions of the "family" wouldn't bother me so much, I can settle for just rolling my eyes at the lyrics, and the face paint...well nobody with half a brain ever listened to these groups for their integrity.

What I can't overlook though is the sheer awfultasticness (TM) of some of the music on display. The last song on Mostasteless "Renditions of Reality" had shown a more gothic, atmospheric side than we had previously seen. It was actually rather cool. They've tried to expand on this with Freek Show. The whole album has a darker, more theatrical feel. Opener "Mutant X" and follow-up, "We Don't Die" are much like the high energy bangers that we are familiar with, but they have a noticeably darker tone and production than before. They also kick some nasty ass.

On the other foot though, we have songs like "Leave Me Alone" and "Empty". Horrible, horrible songs. I think they tried to make some kind of...goth/alternative rock songs(?) or something. I don't know since they're so pitiful that I wouldn't care to take the time to categorize them in the first place. They even tried covering The Doors' "People Are Strange". Yeah, that song. Perhaps you're saying, "Oh...okay. That sounds dumb, but maybe they 'rapped it up' and made it kinda, sorta, maybe cool". Nope. They sang it straight. No rapping. Just singing. Now you must be saying to yourself, "Oh...okay. Maybe they can actually sing?" Nope. Not at all. Not even kinda, sorta, maybe. They're awful. They try to throw a crappy beat over it to...do something I guess, but nothing can save this abomination. Honestly I didn't even know the beat was there until I was listening to it just now. All I can do while it's on is think, "Ew. What do they think they're doing? The fact that juggalos didn't mock them until Twiztid didn't even want to step foot outside of their houses for five years is all the proof I need that this 'movement' is garbage."

And yet I've been playing the hell out this album the last week. Perhaps it's because it's the only Twiztid album I own? Probably, but the other half of the album is still as quality as anything they've ever done. "Fall Apart" is a song that incorporates the newer, more atmospheric side of their sound, but without the awful...rockishness. The lyrics even manage to combine sadsackiness with horrorcore in a way that's fun and might not make me wanna gag when I needed a good whiny cry. "I swallow razor blades and spit up blood/Cut out my heart and gave it to my love/I hung myself with an extention cord/And dangled high above the ouiji board". Goofy but fun. I can't ask for much more. But the best songs on here are the more anthemic songs with the big, dumb chorus. The aforementioned "We Don't Die", "All I Ever Wanted", and "Wut tha Dead Like" are about as addictive as your mother's vagina filled with crack rocks. And a song featuring Three Six Mafia, "Where Itz Goin Down" is a hilarious bonus.

So, when they backtrack to something more familiar they're as good as they ever were, but their...experimentations, are tragic. I've heard much better things about the more atmospheric side of their sound later on in their career, and Goofle actually highly recommended their latest album, so I'm going to assume that this was just a stumbling block for them before greater things. I hope so cause I love Twiztid when they're on their game.





P.S. Why the hell are these getting so long? I'm usually pretty fucking lazy. Whatevs.

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Isbjørn

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The Batlord

The Spits?

And yes. Pretty much. ICP only work as well as they do by being so off-the-wall bizarre.

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The Batlord

Boondox: The Harvest

I figure it's time I do a Psychopathic artist other than ICP or Twiztid. I've been dreading this moment. The moment when my qualified praise turns into me trying to figure out funny ways to say "This sucks". Well, I've heard a couple Boondox songs, but other than that I can't really remember much of him. Might as well start with some douche I'm not familiar with.




Alright, why the fuck is this guy such a fixture on the whole juggalo thing? I've only been listening to this for thirty seconds and I already despise this. I'm not even entirely sure why. There's just something about this that brings the hate brimming up into my mouth. But it's a new and undefined hate, so it is cold and indifferent. But it grows.

As the cover implies, Boondox's gimmick is that he raps as a redneck (or an undead scarecrow or something but who gives a shit?) Why he should do this given ICP's outspoken hatred for rednecks I do not know. I guess they were just scraping the bottom of the juggalo barrel for gimmicks. Whatever, even juggalos should feel embarrassed listening to this. I don't care about being open-minded or non-elitist, if anyone comes onto this site saying they like this crap then I'm gonna mock them until they leave because I assure you we don't want them here. Go ahead and fucking ban me. I don't give a shit. It'd be better than being on the same site with such a fuckwad.

I've heard a couple songs that are kinda fun, but only because they have a decent chorus. But his verses are so generic, untalented, cheesy, and have so little personality that even I can't unhook my brain enough to be able to enjoy them. Making it to anything worth listening to is like slogging through the swamp of mediocrity where this asshole is obviously fucking his sister, not because he's actually a redneck, but because he has to retain his juggalo cred.

I've listened to half of this album already, but I'm done. This isn't growing on me. If it does then I'm going to put a bullet between my eyes. If I let Ron Jeremy put his cock on my tongue, took his sperm into my mouth, spat it onto the ground, licked it up, spat it back onto the ground, licked it up again, spat it into my hand, and then rubbed it onto my nipples it would still leave a better taste in my mouth than this album.

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Trollheart

So did you like it or not?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Isbjørn

Didn't know The Spits was an actual band, I just wrote it since I thought The ****s would give people the wrong impression.

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