RAP METAL STILL EXISTS (THOUGHTS ON TALLAH AFTER THEIR SHOW DOWNSTAIRS AT THE DOME)
Rap metal exists. It exists as much now as it existed when it first started to exist.
Tallah first found me during the pandemic. I was deep into the 6ix9ine lore and he'd just put out that song about being back - and just how back he was from jail after grassing on every person he'd ever met plus Cardi B.
Shrewd viralists Tallah picked up the song and refashioned it into a nuts-to-butts nu-metal banger which quested its way on to my timeline and entered my eyes and ears and I thought it sounded cool. I powered up the Spotify and got listening. It turns out 6ix9ine is a good blueprint for Tallah. Trying different styles, features and stunts to gain a some notoriety. A band made from YouTuber Justin Bonitz, someone savvy with the algorithms, clickbait and Patreon (check out our EP of Alladin covers?) and the son of legendary Dream Theatre drummer Mike Portnoy. They've also fired a bloke for being dodgy. And put out songs with Chelsea Grin.
Their music?
Korn one minute,
Slipknot the next,
Was that a pretty decent Dimebag rip-off solo on The Silo?
The rest is either metalcore, deathcore or the devil's own rap metal. 0% is medio-core :)
Every part played amazingly. They're blisteringly good musicians. They pull off a wide range of homages with a fluency, precision and personality. There's complex rhythms too, helping to push nu-metal into the new age. This, we'd expect from the spawn of Mike Portnoy.
Justin Bonitz - an apparent furry - has the energy that makes this band viable. He's a great vocalist, can pretty much cover the whole range of metal genres and brings a sort of sexually ambiguous, Tumblr-age millennial weirdo-energy nobody knew the genre was in dire need of.
So does the sum of Tallah's parts amount to something better?
Probably not.
But who cares when the parts go so fucking hard.
(the editor) Dan
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