LA based duo ho99o9 are back to lay waste with more sonic shocks. Tomorrow We Escape is their third full length studio album and this time they’ve brought in some help in the form of Dave Sitek, Greg Puciato and Chelsea Wolfe. The duo of theOGM and Yeti Bones (love to know what their real names are) have previously shared stages with metal acts such as Slipknot, Korn, Alice in Chains, Rob Zombie, Ministry and hiphop/rap acts such as Cypress Hill, Denzel Curry and Ghostface Killah. Their style is to fuse together all manner of instruments and noises with the sole intent of making a mighty fucking racket.
Opening with the introductory piece ‘I Miss Home’ they sound like Tyler, The Creator over a violent fuzz suggesting noisier environments incoming. The first sign of distorted guitar and choppy drums comes with the punky thrill of ‘Escape’. The sneering (killer) chorus rips it up with ruthless abandon. The excellent sharpshooter ‘Target Practice’ grinds with a filthy beat like industrial beatmasters Dälek. It’s violent, furious and supremely groovy.
Sharp blasts of razor wire distortion obliterate over a thunderous beat in ‘OK, I’m Reloaded’. Scathing guitars that manage to sound like a grimier Ministry bury hard into your brain. When ho99o9 lean more into the rap side of things the music slips into the red zone for me, my preference being the harder metallic sounds. One such track is ‘Psychic Jumper’ which tries to work a funky psychedelic groove, with mixed results for these ears.
The Busta Rhymes speed flow of the Dave Sitek infused ‘Incline’ (featuring Nova Twins, Pink Siifu and Yung Skrrt) fries the boards with a pulsating and relentless vibe. ‘Upside Down’ is an all-out aural assault with a bumping heavy grind and a hectic collision of crashing drums and scuzzy bass/guitar. Featuring the majestic punk snarls of Greg Puciato, ‘Tapeworm’ has beats that slap like early Slipknot. Anything that features Puciato will have the tendency to sound completely fucking unhinged and ‘Tapeworm’ delivers on all fronts. One minute sounding like he’s being torn apart the wildly erratic Puciato switches into that powerful croon in between spewing up bile. With machine gun beats as the underlay, it’s manic, chaotic and incidentally, an album highlight.
After the headfuck that is ‘Tapeworm’ we need a breather and this comes in the form of ‘Immortal’, a duet with no less than Chelsea Wolfe. That beautiful haunting voice of Chelsea’s soars elegantly over a distinctly quiet instrumentation. Shouldn’t work, but it does. The afterburners get switched on again for the caustic surge of ‘LA Riots’. Not unlike The Prodigy on fire, there’s an unnerving edge to the growled raps and the twitchy guitars and pumping beats. The final charge sounds like Slayer such is the intensity of the riffs. Calling a song after one of the leaders of industrial punk metal sets you up for a potential fail. Well, in ‘Godflesh’, ho99o9 accept the challenge and end the album with a song that’s pure anger and vitriol. Bordering on the edge of the abyss it takes any semblance of melody, twists it round, smashes it to bits then sets it ablaze. I should imagine they were very pleased with themselves after knocking that one out.
This is a curious album, you have to be in a certain mood to take it on. Come out the other side of it and whatever put you into that mood will either be forgotten or else you’ll be ready to seriously smash something. ho99o9 are savage and fired up, pretty much all of the time. Mixing up a multitude of styles and genres. This album is ten raucous blasts of punk n’ rap n’ metal, and one dreamy Chelsea Wolfe duet.
