Stuck Mojo

Southern Born Killers

Written by: AB on 27/03/2008 11:29:48

Even though this band is new to me, Stuck Mojo has apparently been around since 1989 (they broke up in 2000 and reunited five years later). Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, and calling their album \"Southern Born Killers\", I\'m thinking \"I\'m in for a treat of some Pantera-ish awesomeness of redneck metal complete with the feel of beers, dust, and thrashing solos\". I\'m not, however. Stuck Mojo plays crossover metal/rap metal, and to be honest I thought this stuff died silently back in the 90\'s.

Well, apparently, it didn\'t. Frontman Bonz comes from a rap background, and the rest of the band are metallers. The content on \"Southern Born Killers\" is a true mix of the two genres with thrash/nu-metal music and rap vocals. I\'ll say right away that I don\'t think it works. Opener \"I\'m American\" starts out with some groovy thrash rhythms, and I just barely get to think \"good stuff\", before the vocals start - slow rap - basically destroying the whole track. It is really sad when there\'s a good metal \'beat\', pretty good riffing, cool drum work, and some genuinely cool solos. Next, the title track continues with molesting good music with the crappy vocals, and the only new thing is an almost gospel-like chorus of girls going \"higher, higher, HIGHER\". Not that cool really.

Basically, the whole album is like this more or less. Metal with rap. The first song that I almost like is \"The Sky Is Falling\", because the rap is now exchanged with nu-metal singing, and even though that sounds by definition like it would suck, it works. At least way better than the torment that is hip hop on thrash riffs. We don\'t get fully lucky though, as some rap is still present.

On the album we also have the somewhat well known or controversial \"Open Season\" with blatantly anti-islamic lyrics. Even though Stuck Mojo mostly is against the radical / fanatical interpretations of islam, lyrics like \"No matter if you\'re woman or man, or child, my profile is crazy, that shit you do doesn\'t amaze me, I\'m ready to blaze thee\" don\'t leave much to the imagination. I\'m not preaching for or against here, just mentioning it because there\'s been much hype and controversy about the song. Music wise, I can\'t say much I haven\'t said before - OK music, crappy vocals, though there\'s some additional middle eastern inspired guitar work which actually sounds good.

As is probably clear I\'m really underwhelmed by \"Southern Born Killers\". The music rocks, but that rap just doesn\'t work. Rap metal can be good (though it\'s been a long time since I\'ve actively listened to it myself) - it worked for Korn, Linkin Park, Rage Against The Machine etc. It doesn\'t for Stuck Mojo. Either the instruments or the vocals should change style, as it is, the music is too thrashy (solos, riffs) for the rap, the vocals are too hip hop for the music. It just doesn\'t go together.

4

For the fans of: Linkin Park, rap metal

Download: The Sky Is Falling, Home
Listen: MySpace
Buy: iTunes

Release date 03.03.2008
Napalm Records

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