OFFICIAL: www.dropoutkingsmusic.com
Written
by Jason Hillenburg, posted by blog admin
Dropout
Kings, a six piece from Arizona, are a young band ranking among the last true
believers in nu-metal and ambitious enough to attempt doing something new with
a largely moribund style. Their debut full length AudioDope is certainly cut
from the same cloth as older iconic acts in this vein, ala Limp Bizkit and NWA,
among others, but there’s enough individuality and idiosyncratic musical turns
in this collection to emphasize where Dropout Kings bring something of
themselves to this form. The ten song collection pops from the first and wastes
no time relating to its target audience, but there’s never any sense of Dropout
Kings pandering for listener’s attention. Instead, they craft out their own
distinctive niche with this effort and manage to bring together the muscular
attack of hard rock and hip hop together in a potent and unpredictable way.
“Something
Awful” opens AudioDope with atmospheric musical accompaniment before vocalist
Adam Ramey makes his presence first felt. The lyrical material is definitely
uncompromising and never overwrought; even when the hip hop vocals give way to
outright screaming, there’s never a sense of a band laying things on too thick
for their audience. The song never settles into a traditional pattern and, as
such, keeps listeners engaged from the first. An opening like this throws down
a gauntlet of sorts; no matter how they pick up the mood from this point
onward, you keep listening with the knowledge Dropout Kings can intensify the
mood at will. “Burn1”, the customary ode to the joys of marijuana, has plenty
of musical imagination to redeem potentially clichéd subject matter and the
same atmospheric strengths of the opener are abundant with this track. It’s
certainly more playful than the opener, but the band throws themselves into the
song with the same abandon.
“Going
Rogue” is a song about cracking up under the weight of too many demands and the
song embodies that mood in every way. The buzzsaw qualities of the guitar work
on AudioDope reach a new peak with this song and the vocal pyrotechnics are
equally memorable. The album’s longest track “Bad Day” embraces groove for the
first time and features some spoken word near the opening before segueing into
a hard hitting nu-metal arrangement. Dropout Kings balance the straight-forward
hip hop delivery with screaming hard rock vocals better here than any of the
aforementioned songs and it helps make this one of the album’s more memorable
numbers.
“Scratch
and Claw” features some jagged, effects laden guitar lines accompanying the
thunderous drumming and another high velocity hip hop delivery. The chorus is
one of the strongest on AudioDope and pairs up nicely with the lean verses. The
song’s final half dials up the musical fury before returning for some final
passes through the chorus. The title song is one of the album’s most impressive
achievements and closes the release on a distinctly personal note. The grinding
guitars give the vocals an added dose of gravitas and their bulldozer quality
illustrates, for a final time, the band’s uncompromising talents for aural
assault. Dropout Kings’ AudioDope isn’t a perfect effort, but the band emerges
with a clear creative vision and they will undoubtedly expand on it with future
releases.
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