In 2006 Anthony "The Holocaust" Brown released his fifth studio album, entirely produced by the production team Blue Sky Black Death and without the presence of any external guests.
"Plunder" kicks off the album, female soul sample in loop, vibrating and deep bass line, plucked guitar strings, ideal dry midtempo drum, dark soundscape, gloomy and nocturnal rhythm created by Blue Sky Black Death, a duo formed by Kingston and Young God. Initial hook by Warcloud which is a tribute to "Demonizer" by Judas Priest, then his energetic attack on the first verse, smooth flow, regular, slow, fluid, excellent. Chorus, on the second verse the emcee stays focused, drops another of his typical ghostly battle and creates one of the best songs in his vast catalog.
The second choice is "Twilight Zone". It features his hook that pays homage to both the eponymous Hitchcock TV series and his film "Rear Window" (1954). Hardcore first verse energetic on a dark and uptempo boom bap beat sublimely designed, quality rhythm, slowed down sample of a tone from "Farewell No. 1" by Shigeru Umebayashi, ghostly xylophone, strings in crescendo, dusty drum midtempo, deep bassline echoing in the background, great work behind the keys of the production duo from San Francisco. The rapper delivers a solid hook and returns inspired in the second verse, completing a exquisite track, he's in one of his best moments on this record. Rhythm left to breathe for over a minute at the end, fantastic choice, it really deserved, at least so it seems, because the boy returns to deliver a final hook.
"We All Are Well Known" is a rare three-verse piece of Warcloud. Crazy boom bap by Blue Sky Black Death, brilliant, tight dusty drum, fat bass, dark strings down there, uptempo rhythm, solid flowing rapping by Warcloud, solid hook. In the second verse the emcee massacres the rhythm with a spectacular unstoppable style that he maintains in his last stanza, recited in direct continuation with the chorus, going away with his style on this sensational production.
The Los Angeles artist lets the album breathe a bit with "What Can the Matter Be". Excellent boom bap, downtempo skeletal drum that borders on perfection, excellent supporting sounds, vibrating bass that remains hidden watching in the background, magnificent work by the San Fran duo: Warcloud still goes hardcore with a slow but sustained and solid rapping, while the beat travels towards territories consistent with the production of Killah Priest in his debut. On the hook, the boy claims to be a son of Wu-Tang and communicates that you are on a Wu-Tang album if you listener still hadn't understood: four phenomenal beats, four songs with an absurd rapping worthy of the best Shaolin albums. The rapper also shows that he can make short and downtempo tracks, each song is better than the previous one, album at the limits of perfection. A skit outro from a kung-fu movie closes.
A long chorus introduces "God Be With You", a joint blessed by an ethereal musical painting created by Blue Sky Black Death: boom bap, skeletal drum midtempo, melancholic keyboard, perfect music, calm, loose, clear delivery of Warcloud, huge bridge on the chorus, then the boy returns for the second verse and realizes another highlight in his career. Warcloud changes the structure of his typical track a bit in "Monarchs", starting with a short verse, simple hook, another short verse, hook, final verse, always with a robust flow that makes no concessions on a quality ghostly production from the guys behind the keys who place a lively drum, raw bass, sparkling sounds and a haunting male soul loop.
"No Image" boasts a hook sampled by Nina Simone from "Images". Dark and slow production by Young God & Kingston. Beautiful deep bass line, didgeridoo, an instrument already used by Killah Priest in the title track of his debut album, bright piano keys, exquisite sensational beat. Velvety and energetic delivery by Warcloud who finds himself in the best produced album of his life. The Black Knights emcee allows the rhythm (and the listener) to breathe, leaving the hook to the solemn and calm splendid voice of Nina Simone,then he comes back stronger than before on the beat, attacking fantastically in the second verse, hardcore, fast, lethal, impressive, tough, hard, clear. The same happens in the last verse, Warcloud rapping is uplifting, the production created by Blue Sky Black Death pushes him forward with enthusiasm. The soundscape breathes a minute and a half at the end, in one of the greatest cuts ever made by a Wu-Tang affiliate.
Another career peak is fund in "The Ocean". Skit from a movie, then Warcloud flies on a brilliant production: boom bap, dry midtempo dusty drum, shimmering strings, chopped female soul loop, deep bassline in the background, dark piano keys loop, short violin loop, simple hook, the emcee drops stream-of-consciousness bars with an unstoppable energetic style. Splendid instrumental that can breathe for a long time at the end, beautiful. "Sinister" is yet another classic on this CD. Boom bap, dry midtempo dusty drum, distant raw bassline, organ keys dominating the beat, fantastic, they give a dark feel to the rhythm, fueled by dark strings and a constantly ghostly, silenthillian, accordion-like mood, Warcloud attacks slow, hardcore, clean, track of rare purity. Hook, then the emcee returns with a slow and composed style in the second verse, on a stratospheric soundscape by Blue Sky Black Death at their finest. Holocaust also drops a third verse, annihilating the production.
"Smoking Room" has a more ethereal, heavenly, fantastic mood. Introductory sample of Death in June, pause, sweet piano that arrives, anticipates everyone and welcomes the rhythm, melodic sound held in the background, dry dusty drum midtempo, deep bass line, obsessive loop of fife that is appropriate with the music, because Holocaust arrives to tell the story of the Pied Piper in this first verse. Calm entrance of the emcee from LA, smoothness delivery, loose, effortless, composed, then becomes unstoppable breathlessly, the boy flies on a sensational beat made by Blue Sky Black Death. Short instrumental break, rare cut without choruses, Warcloud returns almost immediately to drop the second verse, this time on a different theme, namely the story of Daedalus and the Minotaur, with the same style as before, flowing, breathless, energetic, another classic in his vast catalog.
The following choice gives us a very precise image of the album and the author's situation as a whole, but you have to be able to visualize it and it's not something obvious or for everyone. I'll try anyway. Here, in "Lady of the Birds", it's as if Warcloud has just been kicked out of a Shaolin temple at dusk, drunk and limping, staggering out and thinking he's drunk while the monks have watered down his whiskey, taunted by the monks, mocked by the yaks, teased by the birds, having catastrophic deeply-obscure paranormal visions as he tries to find the path back to his hut, mumbling random things in an attempt to figure out what instructions to give to the girl he didn't pay for the night.
It's a short interlude of Holocaust that delivers a hook four times in a row with a chanted style on a fantastic, rich and complex production of Blue Sky: pinched guitar, thundering, deep, powerful bass, melodic female soul sample, graceful piano keys, dusty underground hard downtempo drum, ethereal music, heavenly violins, samples from a bird that takes flight flapping its wings, echoing delivery of Warcloud on this production among the best of the album. To conclude a piece that should be a simple and banal interlude that anyone can skip and that instead turns out to be yet another classic on this album, Holocaust decides to put a male soul sample as the outro of the piece, it's sublime, magnificent. Not only that: the sample comes directly from "Lonesome Billy" by Peter Tevis, who recorded songs to the music of Ennio Morricone, this comes from one of the lesser-known western films the composer collaborated on, "Bullets Don't Argue" (1964), preceding the Dollar Trilogy with Sergio Leone. So yes, Warcloud samples Morricone, that's also why we love him.
"The Worst" starts with a heavenly production, this is one of the best works ever by Blue Sky, impeccable in this album. Thundering bass line heavy deep, dark piano loop, soul samples chopped and looped stretched, hard, dry, tough, dusty midtempo drum, obscure sounds, bleek rhythm, beautiful. Simple hook, if there is a simple one in Warcloud's discography, then his entrance into the track is sensational, aggressive, clean, crisp, clear, energetic, flows nicely on this dark and rich production. The Wu-affiliated emcee continues to surprise in the second verse, entering calmly and starting to stammer his lyrics and eating some lines until the end, giving life to a dirty and unclear verse, as if he could no longer recite his own lines and mumbling. Warcloud doesn't stop and continues to deliver gems, flanked by Blue Sky.
He delivers spoken word over a ballad production in the next piece, "Killer Moth": boom bap, perfect underground downtempo dusty drum, thundering bass line, dark musical carpet, synthesized keyboard, dark piano keys loop, melodic sounds, Warcloud swims freely without thoughts on this amazing production. The boy also lets the beat breathe, then comes back, always in spoken word and at the beginning of the final hook, gives another gem to the listener: a beautiful bridge is born, in which Blue Sky Black Death inserts an iconic sample, "Per un pugno di dollari, No. 1" from "For a Fistful of Dollars" (1964), the first of Leone's films from the Dollar Trilogy, Morricone again. There are two samples from Ennio in three tracks of this unknown and underrated album by a Wu-Tang Clan affiliate. It's beautiful. Warcloud lets the music breathe in the finale, wonderfully, it's one of his best tracks in the entire catalog, extraordinary.
He delivers quickly on the dark uptempo production of "Wing to Wingfeather", pressing, dry, dusty drums, bass holed in the background, dark sounds, sinister strings, hardcore delivery from the Los Angeles rapper who flies on this fantastic dark soundscape, also laced with a cello that for some reason recalls the theme song of the show "Game of Thrones" (2012-19) made by Ramin Djawadi. Refrain, then the rapper stays hardcore, focused, spectacular, great cut. Beat wisely left to breathe for a bit at the end. The last track on the album is "Crash". Totally disturbing, gothic, medieval rhythm, like a Transylvanian vampire movie. Very long hook from Warcloud, who also throws in something in Italian. Boom bap, deep fat bass good line, acoustic guitar licks, heavy drum dusty dry midtempo, regular delivery robust effortless from Warcloud, at his best ever, nevertheless, the piece is buried by an endless chorus. The emcee lets the rhythm breathe at the end of the cut and it flies around the seven minute mark.
Final Thoughts
The rapper made his industry debut in 1998 on a compilation of Wu-Tang affiliates, "The Swarm, Vol. 1" appearing on "Punishment" as a member of Black Knights of the North Star, a West Coast supergroup closely affiliated with Wu-Tang and the first West Coast group to sign to RZA's label, of which Warcloud is supposed to be the leader. The group has a second track on the album, "Fatal Sting", in which the emcee doesn't take part. In the same year he's a guest on two tracks of Killarmy's second CD, appearing on "Doomsday" and "Bastard Swordsman", then he's also included by The RZA in his debut album also released in 1998, "RZA as Bobby Digital in Stereo", in a track together with Steelz, Ghostface Killah and Doc Doom of Black Knights of the North Star. Warcloud is also deservedly considered the best rapper on that Bobby Digital album.
These high-profile appearances allowed him to become a regular name among Wu fans, so much so that he carved out a niche audience for himself. After a few years, Warcloud left the group and embarked on an independent solo career. In 2002 he debuted with a solo CD and took part in two songs included in a compilation of Wu-Tang affiliates ("The Sting", 2002), later collaborating on a Black Knights album ("Every Night Is a Black Knight", 2004) and continuing to release material steadily.
Holocaust's fifth studio album, which is now under his third different moniker in four years after debuting as Warcloud and going by Alcatraz, is also his best album of his career. As for Blue Sky Black Death, the production offered by Ian Taggart & Ryan Maguire is some of the best in hip-hop this year, dark, gloomy, rich, layered, brilliant, cinematic, absolutely flawless. The boys rediscover the formula forgotten by RZA in the mid-nineties and dress the beats with excellent synths, splendid samples, elegant strings, deep bass lines, pianos that drive the tracks, dirty drums and a perpetually dark mood that marries beautifully with the irregular, mumbled and disjointed execution of the Los Angeles emcee.
The author's lyrical performance lends itself to multiple interpretations: stream of consciousness inspired by the most memorable joints of some of the Sunz of Man guys, random and ultra-violent battle raps very khorosho, catastrophisms, a series of his nightmares poured on wax mixed with multiple references to medieval history, to religion, mythology and horror cinematography — which I'm not a fan of, so I can't catch them all; an easy example is the Robert Rodriguez classic "From Dusk till Dawn" (1996), but I guess a fan of that genre might have better luck in this hour of listening — or a series of confusing and nonsensical lyrics recited with an even stranger rapping style due to the excessive use of angel dust. It's probably a bit of all of these put together.
With a little imagination, you could even think of being inside an intricate concept in which at a certain point, let's say twenty seconds into the album, Warcloud himself got lost in the chaos and never found his way back. More simply, you could label the whole thing as the watered-down product of a Killah Priest who didn't make it. Most of the songs are structured in a simple way, with a couple of verses interspersed with a basic chorus: unfortunately, the hooks are the weak point of the project, Warcloud doesn't know how to do them, sometimes the simplicity of the chorus is functional to the track and somehow manages to validate it, however, in most of the choices the boy insists on endlessly repeating the hook, exhausting the listener as in the final piece, which extends to seven minutes when two would have been enough, in an effort like this in which the hooks were not really necessary.
In this way, Warcloud creates a world of his own that is practically inaccessible to the listener and, aided by Blue Sky Black Death, manages to blend dark cinema and hip-hop creating a one-of-a-kind album, impressive, at times even cathartic, bathed in underground cult status.
Published by Babygrande, it boasts one of the most beautiful covers of the year. You may not see it, but just below the album title, which coincides with the rapper's name and above the rapper's face there is the symbol of the Wu-Tang Clan. This is a twin album with the other one produced by the group for another Wu-Tang affiliate, the Sunz of Man member Hell Razah, released the following year always with the same label. Not for everyone, it's the best Warcloud album ever, one of the best by Blue Sky Black Death and one of the best produced albums for a rapper close to Wu-Tang in the 2000s.
Rating: 8.5/10.
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