The Necromasters album, “Dead Baby Suitcase” was recently sent to me, and after listening I remembered I’m a rock buff at heart, so I had the help of a hardcore hip hop fan and at the end of listening to the album I realized that we were pretty much on the same level regarding our opinion of what we heard. The Necromasters’ songs have great rhythm and some are even worthy of listening aloud with smooth beats and decent melodies including “Matter of Time” which has a great energy, but in the end, there just was nothing here.
The album starts off with the slow “A Long Time Ago” which is a slow track, not a really good move considering there’s nothing in the beginning to hook the audience in. Then we move to a fast song which is the title song “Dead Baby Suitcase” which is unusually violent, and onto “Home Invasion” a song too similar in tone, lyrics and beats to be considered a single and is also unnecessarily graphic with lyrics that border on snuff, “Cold Dark Road” is the worst of the tracks here with an unintentional comedic tone with a slow smooth rhythm that tries to be hip hop and a softer song while the group sings together out of sync with one another and lyrics that are really just no good, and there continues to be a transition of songs that are just so out of sync with the other so it’s very hard to get into what the group is trying to get across if they are.
There’s more of a heavy metal tone to the music as the group switches from Metal to Rap with lyrics more suitable for Marilyn Manson while the beats seem to have come out of Slim Shady Records, and it just does not fit. There is a lot to work on including the fact that the music here attempts to be too artistic and conceptual. While the effort seems large, there’s not a lot of need for a conceptual hip hop group in this day and age and there’s not one song really worthy of becoming a single or being released to tote the album.
Many times “The Necromasters” are too gimmicky with over the top and extremely graphic lyrics that seem as if they’re trying to get your attention with awfully violent lyrics and graphic descriptions echoing Eminem, but while Eminem’s lyrics were graphic he had something to say beneath it, something that isn’t pulled off here especially with the really violent “Home Invasion”. Within every track, one by one, they don’t seem to be getting across anything nor do they seem to really be bringing about a point other than throwing in every violent word possible to the point of snuff. Goths may get a kick out of this, but with things like the potentially controversial “School Massacre”, the violent “Dead Baby Suitcase” and “Home Invasion”, it’s hard to imagine this ever going beyond underground into the main stream. While the beats are decent and there’s some good rhythm, the lyrics are just unnecessarily violent and graphic and the group comes off as a gimmick with really nothing to say more than an actual hip hop band.