Ho99o9 have always been tough to define. Punk-rap, hardcore hip-hop, horrorcore, noise-punk — all of these labels and more have been affixed to the New Jersey duo’s music, which is a chaotic blend of electronics and rock instrumentation, poetic lyrics and anarchic yells. Within this context, the band’s third album flips expectations in a wholly new way.
‘Tomorrow We Escape’ is refined in a manner that feels fresh for vocalist theOGM and multi-instrumentalist Eaddy, beginning with I Miss Home. In the past, Ho99o9 have kicked off their albums with muddy, intense rage-raps that drip with malice, but here the production glitters as clean vocal lines soar. It sounds a lot more like Tyler, the Creator’s more recent work than it does those old Odd Future tapes.
Psychic Jumper is similarly pared back, with a Chester Watson or Earl Sweatshirt-style conscious rap sandwiching a hook of, “I been tryna keep my head on straight / every time I hear that record play.”
Later, the Chelsea Wolfe-featuring Immortal is a perfect blend of the goth experimentalist and Ho99o9’s sounds, which on paper, at least, should not work half as well as it does.
Escape brings some of that classic Ho99o9 raucousness back in but, even then, the verses being delivered over sparse beds of bass and drums allows the duo more space to get their voices heard. The final breakdown is neck-snappingly heavy, though, and shows they’ve lost none of their bite.
Indeed, Target Practice and OK, I’m Reloaded follow and are ripe with threat and danger, while Tapeworm features ex-Dillinger Escape Plan frontman Greg Puciato at his viscerally charming best. LA Riots goes off like a punk powder keg and Godflesh is vicious in every way, from the buzzing, grimy production to the barked chorus.
Ho99o9’s latest reinvention is unexpected, but it’s about the best thing they could have done. ‘Tomorrow We Escape’ is the mark of an act that knows exactly what they want and an exercise in compromise without losing the heart of who they are.
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