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Codefendants

This Is Crime Wave

Written by: PP on 06/11/2023 22:05:51

Once NOFX announced they were essentially done, Fat Mike has been busy with all sorts of new projects. One of them is Codefendants, which alongside the man himself features Sam from Get Dead, the rapper Ceschi Ramos, and a litany of guest artists on their debut album "This Is Crime Wave". The guys have essentially sat down and decided to attempt creating a new genre altogether, which they've dubbed crime wave. It's sort of a blend between grimy hip hop and folksy punk that's certainly unique, I'll give 'em that.

Judging by "Suicide By Pigs" alone, you wouldn't necessarily know what's up. This one's more of a Days 'N Daze type of song with coarse, gravelly vocals delivered across the fast-paced, raw acoustic guitar, the occasional screams, and...string instrumentation in the background. We'll, we've seen Fat Mike pull that off before on The Decline anyway. "Prison Camp" is similar in its vibe, here sounding like NOFX's interludes

It's the rest of the album where creativity starts to flourish. "Abscessed", which features all of Get Dead as well as another rapper, Onry Ozzborn, kinda ranges between hardcore punk and gangsta rap, if they were played on top of each other simultaneously. The reggae-driven "Disaster Scenes" has a punk tempo to the vocals, and features Sam's trademark screams in the background, before Stacey Dee from Bad Cop/Bad Cop throws in a hip-hop cameo with chilling electronic effects on the background.

Elsewhere, "Fast Ones" is so deep within the rap realm that it made me question whether this album is even relevant at all to review in our magazine. "Suckers" is just on the edge, yet it carries its hip-hop with a rebellious punk rock spirit in a manner you won't have heard anywhere else prior.

Indeed, "This Is Crime Way" is one of the weirdest albums you'll hear this year. The band dubs it genre-fluid for its ability to seamlessly swim between radically different stylistic directions. As such, I can't quite decide whether to love it or hate it. It feels authentically like art rather than a gimmick, which is how these types of experiments have a tendency of often doing. The lyrics are pure gold and the gloomy, introspective hip-hop embedded within the punk elements and even electronics from time to time is something else. Worth checking out for its strange genre mix, if nothing else.

Download: Suicide By Pigs, Abscessed
For the fans of: NOFX, Days 'N Daze, Get Dead, Ceschi
Listen: Facebook

Release date 24.03.2023
Bottles To The Ground