City Morgue is a trio from New York City consisting of ZillaKami & SosMula on the mic as well as honorary 3rd member Thraxx on production. I first caught wind of them due to ZillaKami’s verse on Denzel Curry’s magnum opus TA13OO, but the group’s full-length debut that followed shortly after Hell or High Water completely stopped me in my tracks. Mostly because prior to that album, I never heard anyone fuse trap with metal music in the way that they did. This was followed up with the worthy sequel As Good as Dead & the mediocre Toxic Boogaloo EP but after spending these last couple months branching out solo, they’re returning for their highly anticipated 3rd album.
“Death Cult” is a short yet cutthroat trap metal opener telling their competition to run for the hill leading into Jasiah tagging along for the eerie “Cabin in the Woods” comparing themselves to Jason Voorhees from the famous Friday the 13th franchise. “Conscience” works in a heavy guitar & a rubbery bass-line to talk about clearing their minds whereas the Thraxx-produced “Make It Disappear” viciously get in their murder bag.
Meanwhile on “What’s My Name?”, we get a wailing guitar rhythm & some punchy 808s talking about marching like dogs just before “Everything’s Broken” is a grunge/trap fusion about blowing their brains out. The first SosMula solo cut “OHDEE” has a more chilled out trap vibe speaking on grinding nonstop, but then the first ZillaKami solo cut “Flat Lips” brings in a down-tuned guitar talking about moshing.
The duo reunite for the abrasive “Hot Shells” comparing themselves to Captain Price from Modern Warfare 2 whereas “Mother Lover” advises not to get fucked up on their mothers. The song “X-Mas Balla” has a chugging riff with the help of Powers Pleasant proclaiming themselves as rat killers & reptilians while the penultimate track “Outer Space” by SosMula is just so annoyingly repetitive. However, the closer “Mutt B” by ZillaKami makes up for it by energetically lighting up anyone who steps up to him.
Even though I was underwhelmed by Toxic Boogaloo & 13 Songs 2 Die 2, I did enjoy Dogboy yet still didn’t quite know what to expect from Bottom of the Barrel. Now that we finally got the album, it’s pretty decent. It’s definitely more focused than Toxic Boogaloo was, but play middle ground with their signature trap metal sound rather than expanding on it.
Score: 3/5
Legends Will Never Die 