Review Summary: Only for the ones who ever cared to call themselves a member of the"H.U. Army". Don't even bother otherwise.
Hollywood Undead need no introduction; one of the few surviving acts who participated in the crunkcore scene, who somehow managed to continue on without any allegations and with successful tours throughout the world with much older and once bigger acts(such as split 2020 tour with
Papa Roach). Along the way, they survived firing two of their members, one of which was their main songwriter, and every two to three years comfortably released their usual, never changing collection of approximately 16 tracks mixing imaginative nu-metal classics and party bangers, following their tales of fine gentleman-like endeavours of being role models for the outsider kids, while
slipping roofies in the drinks and treating their critics to a dick-to-mouth.
That was until they announced a duo of records titled
New Empire , which were to be released in two volumes. The first one, released earlier in the previous year, took on the overproduced, yet focused sound of modern metalcore, scraping their party songs in favour of a shorter, much more consistent record. Volume 2, however, was supposed to be focused on their hip hop side, known from the classics such as
Comin' in Hot. The fact that their words mean nothing becomes obvious from the first moment the pop punk infused sound of
Medicate comes on, including even the necessary lyrics portraying the life of an outcast, following in the footsteps set by the rap luminary
Machine Gun Kelly, letting you know you're in for exquisite half-an-hour of music.
Following the guitar-ladden sound is the pop-rap-punk ballad
Coming Home, which sounds like it could come from any of their previous records, completely ditching the effort to reach out attempted on the first volume. Overly dramatic, yet soulless chorus is followed by rapid, autotuned rap from Johnny 3 Tears, who constantly sounds like he's shouting at neighbours' kids who stepped foot near his plants. There actually are a few tracks that follow their claims regarding the sound of this record though. On
Worth It, Charlie Scene trades showing off his weenie for putting on a full on
Eminem impression, with Danny sounding like an abused puppy with his breathy chorus, while on
Monsters they manage to bring
Lil Peep back to life, though he calls himself
Killstation here? As rare as it is, the group actually comes up with some decent lyrics here, spat by J-Dog.
I remember waking up and having rats in the kitchen
No screens on the windows, that *** ain't no fiction
There were too many mouths and too many children
But the world don't give a *** about us and our feelings
Looking up, are you listening? 'Cause I'm on my knees
Even though I'm not a Christian, listen, I might be
One in a million, 'cause I made it out of that kitchen
Not spending too long talking about anything with just an ounce of substance, on
Idol, they switch back to being the
undead, proclaiming that they ain't no idols,
they're just gangsters over a dubstep beat that must've been hiding in the dark since 2011.
Tech N9NE makes an appearance, where his very, almost overly, technical rapping works nicely, contradicting the simple, angsty first verse, and actually making for the only feature that is worth something. The exact opposite of that is the feature of Jacoby Shaddix and
Ice Nine Kills on a remix of a song from the previous album,
Heart of a Champion. Ice Nine Kills feature is totally pointless, with Spencer Charnas singing the chorus once, before being left in the dust by Danny. Even worse is the rap Shaddix offers though, somehow topping the imaginative chart of the worst verses of
Hollywood Undead's career, and leaving the song as the most unlikeable one on the record.
Yeah, I've been knocked down, but I get right back up, uh
Yeah, I put the work in 'cause I can't rely on my luck, nah
Yeah, I see you chasing, you're just basic, you're just lame, man
You don't wile out, you don't throw down, so you better stay in your lane, man
This record is not good, for the most part it lacks substance, consistency, and unlike every HU record before this one, fun, which was one of the few redeeming qualities of the band. At least for now, it sounds like the band is scraping the bottom of creative barrel, possibly being tired from the creative outburst of the first volume of
New Empire. But even then - I can't despise it. At least not completely.
Hollywood Undead are the band that got me into music and how I found this website all those years ago, so I'll always have a very tiny soft spot for them, but not even that can cover up all of the issues this album has.
Unless you've ever had any interest in the band, beside the morbid kind – you don't need to listen to this. And if you had..who am I kidding.
