Cheat Code

The most frustrating part of this record is that you can tell Black Sun Empire really tried with the production on this one. Everything is wonderfully dark and crushing throughout, and, aesthetically, this album nails what it's going for. The problem comes in with the rather spotty performances from Virus Syndicate, who often fail to deliver properly engaging verses, or have questionable bars that pull away from the otherwise great production behind them. A lack of strong hooks also brings this record down a bit for me, though not nearly as much in the back half where the sound design really picks up.

All that criticism aside, I hope it's clear that I'm simply frustrated that this is a *solid* album instead of truly great one, especially when the makings of one are definitely here, and the back end even reaches it on the song "Bus Driver".

Fave tracks: Catastrophic, Bus Driver, Rammo
Least fave track: Welcome to the Jungle