Temples Of Boom [PA]

Rap Pages - 7 (out of 10) - "...B-Real spits out lyric after lyric lambasting critics, ex-homies and anyone else not down with his familia....Some of the record might sound familiar, but, hey, that's the Cypress sound..." Melody Maker - Bloody Essential - "...resonates with freakish cheese-wire paranoia....a gobsmacking paradox of expansive claustrophobia....The funk patters like an erratic heartbeat, the voices are stretched to bursting with menace and loathing and mockery..." Rolling Stone - 3.5 Stars - Good - "...half of III bumps with a new and improved Cypress Hill sound that marks producer Muggs' progress....For all the rude immediacy of its rhymes, III is an album of many musical hues...Cypress Hill still wield an intoxicating power that's all their own..." Rap Pages - 7 (out of 10) - "...B-Real spits out lyric after lyric lambasting critics, ex-homies and anyone else not down with his familia....Some of the record might sound familiar, but, hey, that's the Cypress sound..." Rolling Stone - 3.5 Stars - Good - "...half of III bumps with a new and improved Cypress Hill sound that marks producer Muggs' progress....For all the rude immediacy of its rhymes, III is an album of many musical hues...Cypress Hill still wield an intoxicating power that's all their own..." NME - 7 (out of 10) - "...At its most powerful, tuneful, sarcastic and entertaining, it's sneering '90s hip-hop....In the weeks of the OJ fall-out and the Nation Of Islam Million Man March, Cypress Hill have made the album which reflects US and, therefore, global paranoia with spookily apt timing..." Melody Maker - Bloody Essential - "...resonates with freakish cheese-wire paranoia....a gobsmacking paradox of expansive claustrophobia....The funk patters like an erratic heartbeat, the voices are stretched to bursting with menace and loathing and mockery..." NME - 7 (out of 10) - "...At its most powerful, tuneful, sarcastic and entertaining, it's sneering '90s hip-hop....In the weeks of the OJ fall-out and the Nation Of Islam Million Man March, Cypress Hill have made the album which reflects US and, therefore, global paranoia with spookily apt timing..." Q - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...The production is sophisticated, incorporating Indian sitar and sloping, almost psychedelic bass grooves to create a vaguely threatening ambient hardcore..." Q - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...The production is sophisticated, incorporating Indian sitar and sloping, almost psychedelic bass grooves to create a vaguely threatening ambient hardcore..." Rap Pages (1/96, p.32) - 7 (out of 10) - "...B-Real spits out lyric after lyric lambasting critics, ex-homies and anyone else not down with his familia....Some of the record might sound familiar, but, hey, that's the Cypress sound..." Rolling Stone (11/16/95, p.109) - 3.5 Stars - Good - "...half of III bumps with a new and improved Cypress Hill sound that marks producer Muggs' progress....For all the rude immediacy of its rhymes, III is an album of many musical hues...Cypress Hill still wield an intoxicating power that's all their own..." Q (1/96, p.124) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...The production is sophisticated, incorporating Indian sitar and sloping, almost psychedelic bass grooves to create a vaguely threatening ambient hardcore..." Melody Maker (10/28/95, p.39) - Bloody Essential - "...resonates with freakish cheese-wire paranoia....a gobsmacking paradox of expansive claustrophobia....The funk patters like an erratic heartbeat, the voices are stretched to bursting with menace and loathing and mockery..." NME (10/28/95, p.54) - 7 (out of 10) - "...At its most powerful, tuneful, sarcastic and entertaining, it's sneering '90s hip-hop....In the weeks of the OJ fall-out and the Nation Of Islam Million Man March, Cypress Hill have made the album which reflects US and, therefore, global paranoia with spookily apt timing..."

While their themes and mannerisms were always rooted in the So-Cal style, Cypress Hill never really fit the stereotype of real Compton Gs. Blunted? Always! Dangerous? At times. On the G-funk tip that rules West Coast hip-hop? Not at all. Muggs' productions were more dissonant and edgier than anything coming off Death Row, more like a junior Bomb Squad. And the true precursor to B. Real's nasal style on the mic was no Comptonite but Beastie Boy Adrock. So it's no surprise that on CYPRESS HILL III (TEMPLES OF BOOM) this Budda Tribe align themselves with the hottest crew that the East Coast has to offer (the Wu-Tang Clan's U-God joins them on "Killa Hill", an RZA production), and that some of the boldest words on III are molotovs lobbed in West Coast old-schooler Ice Cube's direction (on "No Rest For The Wicked"). Otherwise, TEMPLES OF BOOM is full of the same old rituals: Muggs keeps spinning the grey noises, while B. Real and Sen-Dog go to extremes to describe the disrespect they've garnered, the payback it'll result in, and the amount of smoke they'll be blowing toward the perpetrator's fallen body.|