Curly Castro and PremRock's self-titled debut as ShrapKnel made it clear that the duo is a novel strand of a particular rap lineage. ShrapKnel's sophomore album, Metal Lung, makes this all the more apparent by starting and ending with one of the pillars of this lineage: Vordul Mega and Vast Aire, who rap together as Cannibal Ox. The album begins with Curly Castro ripping through the quick shuffle of Child Actor beat in "Running Rebel Swordplay," working "in the words of the great Vordul Megallah" into relentless wordplay. Twelve tracks later, amidst the imposing crashes of "Gravity Falls," Metal Lung ends with a full-circle moment - Vordul has the last line by way of an "Ox Out the Cage" sample.
Cannibal Ox is an influence, but ShrapKnel is nowhere near being a mere Cannibal Ox redux. The duos reference very different things, some of which did not exist when Cannibal Ox was recording The Cold Vein, use distinct flows, and structure their rhymes differently. The relation is associated with more general traits, such as how the duos both have relatively smooth (Vordul Mega, PremRock) and forceful (Curly Castro, Vast Aire) cadences and how both excel over beats that are dark and inventive. Steel Tipped Dove handles most of those beats on Metal Lung, with Olof Melander and Child Actor providing additional production. The album is full of otherworldly sounds that knock and haunt, and the duo takes full advantage of them with stellar rapping.
"Running Rebel Swordplay" is a thrilling opener, and the next track, "Damn, Alice!," is from another dimension. The song, which starts with Curly Castro over a mesmerizing combination of eerie keys and deep drums, is Steep Tipped Dove at his best. The producer switches things up for PremRock's entrance, with static, feedback, and sharper keys giving the instrumental a more sinister aura. The change takes "Damn, Alice!" to the next level; PremRock responds with an outstanding verse that delves even further into the thread of menacing Alice in Wonderland imagery established by Curly Castro ("Double barrel with that Lewis Carrol, gaze kaleidoscope eyes look at your own peril / One pill will make you larger, the other make you smaller, other pill ain't got no chill, starter kit for a martyr").
With or without beat changes, the instrumentals of Metal Lung are always captivating. The spacey keys and reserved pulses of "Cold Burn" ooze tension. The track's brooding atmosphere and an oddly catchy hook set the stage perfectly for Curly Castro, whose impressive verse describes unforgiving scenarios in lines peppered with allusions to Biggie and GZA ("What's cold? Cold is when you feel it in your bones, got no gas money for the bill in your home / What's cold? Cold showers dead up in the winter, landlord shows you mercy but the colder world is GZA"). GZA also pops up in the Curly Castro bars that pierce through the misty Olof Melander beat of "Acid Vignette," a low-key psychedelic trip that ends with a healthy dose of grim realism from PremRock ("Your happiness is fleeting, history is repeating / Do what you gotta do to clot the bleeding I won't tell, just don't act surprised by how they move you know the drill / They gon' find a different tool, and you left holdin' the bag like Richard Jewell").
Curly Castro's entertaining hip-hop references are probably enough to entice hip-hop heads, but his craft encompasses much more than just that. Those who have heard his past work will know the pro-black socio-political aspect of his writing. This side of Curly Castro shines in "Obol," where his powerful verse begins with the devaluation of Black life in America and images of the slave trade ("Say less when a Black life's worthless, Black face clown car, welcome to the circus / Strong buck surplus, sale antebellum, buy your own freedom or you enter in the maelstrom"). PremRock follows with skillful rhymes on economic exploitation, but the highlight of "Obol" is the verse by featured emcee Ethel Cee. The rapper expands on ShrapKnel's verses by pointing out the hypocrisy of it all in a knockout performance that feels part Malcolm X, part James Baldwin.
Ethel Cee is one of the four guest rappers on Metal Lung, which includes Rob Sonic, billy woods, and Zilla Rocca. All the guest verses are great, and, except for Ethel Cee's, each comes with an intriguing shift in instrumentation. billy woods stops by for the alluring ambiance of "Mescalito," where Steel Tipped Dove fashions a hazy jazzy soundscape with vibraphone, saxophone, drums, and bass. Towards the end of the track, the saxophone and drums become more active as billy woods cuts through the smoke with vivid storytelling.
The quality and chemistry in ShrapKnel's strong debut album showed that the duo already had a firmly established identity. It would have been fine for ShrapKnel to release an album as good as their debut, but Metal Lung is a considerable level up. With the release of Aethiopes (billy woods) and I Told Bessie (ELUCID), Backwoodz Studioz has been on a hell of a run lately, and Metal Lung is up there with the best of their discography.
