The Darkness＜限定盤/Sky Blue/Orange Vinyl＞

Twiztid's first album for their own Majik Ninja Entertainment label displays a great departure in sound for the horrorcore crew, as the dark carnival style of their Psychopathic days gives way to the more cinematic and clean productions found here. In this case, "cinematic" means "horror movies," while titles like "A Little Fucked Up" and "Back to Hell" display the duo's continued allegiance to all things dark, defiant, and dramatic. That's most of the usual stuff, and yet all the clever things from previous releases have given way to lyrics that are more stern and heavy-handed. Some much-needed relief comes when horror movie legend Sid Haig (from Spider Baby to House of a 1000 Corpses) makes a cameo, but this one is best left for the hardcore fans who crave their Twiztid straight-up, and not so twisted, or Psychopathic. Dead Beatz plus frequent Tech N9ne collaborator Michael "Seven" Summers help with production. ~ David Jeffries