Review Summary: One very angry young gentleman
A few months ago, youtube extraordinaire Anthony Fantano declared: “hip-hop is pretty much nu-metal now” – referring of course to the current proliferation of jumped-up, metal-stylised rappers such as 6ix9ine, $uicideboy$ and the loathsome XXXtentacion. True – the aforementioned do possess an aggression reminiscent of the basic nu-metal aesthetic, but, they lack that level of emotional despair that gave the occasional nu metal hit such a furious and vitriolic edge. With that said, upcoming soundcloud rapper Kamiyada ticks all the boxes with this utterly nihilistic and corrosively embittered
Kill the Space God EP.
Lyrically,
Kill the Space God is far from profound or enthralling. But, when Kamiyada’s hyper-distorted, blood-curdling roar drags through the EP’s miasma of droning basslines, he cracks into a vein of distraught emotion unattainable by his contemporaries with their brattish screamed vocals and “whose bass can break the most car speakers” production jobs. On “ACT 2 – BirthOfTheSpaceGod”, Kamiyada’s throat-shredding is truly terrifying – not sounding too far off from an Iowa era Corey Taylor either. With the following “ACT 3 – VENGEANCE”, the intensity culminates to complete meltdown, with Kamiyada’s throat canal imploding with the instrumental into a shrieking psychosis of white noise. Never have I heard vocals sounding so tortured on a hip-hop release.
The interpolation of “Breathe” by the Prodigy on closer “ACT 5/5 – SpaceGodNeverDies” helps to further stoke the nu-metal comparisons. Yes, it’s not nu metal at all, but it does invoke a nostalgia of the time. However, rather than relying on the limited impact of novelty, the sample gets flipped up with a metallic pang to ensure the final “bass in yo face” drop forcefully boots the SpaceGod back into whatever anguished bowel of soundcloud he spawned from.
