(Columbia)
Herald rating: * * *
Review: Russell Baillie
Do you like our new direction? That's the question this veteran East LA hip-hop crew pose on their new album-and-a-bit. The first disc Skull is the Cypress Hill of old. Lots of whiny rhymes about the paranoid life seen from inside a mixed cloud
of dope and gun smoke. And all driven by minimal beats and a spindly synthy musical backing that just occasionally succeeds in reflecting their blinkered borderline-psychotic outlook.
However, much more fun is Bones, the six-track "rock" disc. Care of the groaning guitars they've possibly pinched off rap-metallers Korn or Limp Bizkit, the likes of (Rock) Superstar — delivered as (Rap) Superstar on the first disc — Dust and A Man have a energy and intensity that's lacking in the hip-hop set.
Of course, it helps Cypress Hill's imagery have always been the most Black Sabbath-like of any rap outfit. But you can lay odds that the Moshpit Nation will answer a definite yes to that opening question.
