Live At The Fillmore

While Cypress Hill's Skull & Bones album showcased their sudden interest in merging hard rock with rap, Live at the Fillmore stands as a better testament to the group's newfound ability to synthesize the two styles into an invigorating formula. The album gets off to a fiery start with some rowdy renditions of the group's early-'90s material -- "Hand on the Pump," "How I Could Just Kill a Man," "Insane in the Brain" -- before the sound of heavy metal guitars appears mid-set. Besides integrating guitar riffs into Muggs' already adrenalized beats, the group reinterprets older songs such as "A to the K," making them sound new. Of course, Cypress Hill wouldn't be Cypress Hill without their adamant smoking advocacy, and starting with the trippy siren intro to "I Wanna Get High," the group moves through a medley of bud-smoking songs before the mosh-inciting conclusion of "Riot Starter" and "(Rock) Superstar." ~ Jason Birchmeier