This album was released on April 4th this year. Back in 2022, I wrote about an album by these guys called King Cobra. I thought it was pretty good; there were flashes of brilliance peppered throughout the record, but as a whole it didn’t blow me away. With that said, the best moments on that album were so good that I still would have considered myself a fan of them. That’s why I was pretty excited to check out this latest release. I’m not gonna beat around the bush here—this new album is a leap in quality from King Cobra. It’s still far from a perfect record, but I was much more satisfied with this release than its predecessor.

---

This isn’t a full review, so I’m just gonna write about a few highlights, but first I wanna write about the one track I didn’t like at all real quick; it’s called Soft Pack Shorty, and the main reason I don’t fuck with this song is just because of the content. I get zero enjoyment out of hearing rappers talk about their sex lives. It’s not just a rapper thing—I don’t wanna hear that from anybody. It felt oddly out of place on this album. Maybe the woman in question is a metaphor for some kind of political movement? I don’t know. Sonically, it’s a fine song. I just really disliked the verse from Eze Jackson. It sucks because he has a really dope voice, but the shit he was saying made me cringe. I can’t lie to y’all. The more I listen to the song, the more I dislike it. Sorry for hating. I just had to get that out the way.

The album begins with my favorite song, The Iron Wall. It features FRANKI3, and it’s boiling hot fire. This track is quotables galore. The chaotic, high-energy production is the perfect backdrop for Brian Ennals’ fiery, politically charged lyricism.

Zionists are the new nazis
Netanyahu is the new Hitler
Bodies keep piling the fuck up
America & Israel just get richer

The opening verse had me hooked from the jump. The second verse is even better though. I absolutely love the opening line where he says “Gal Gadot can’t act, so fuck that bitch.” I personally find that line hilarious. I mean, it’s true, but it also makes it seem like her acting skills or lack thereof are her greatest offense. That’s really funny to me. Another one of my favorite lines is “only immigrant I want deported is Elon Musk.” That’s so fire. As I said on Twitter recently, I think this is the best song I’ve heard all year from a strictly lyrical standpoint. He killed this shit. The additional vocals from FRANKI3 are a nice touch as well. The song’s dope as fuck.

The next song I wanna talk about is the title track, A City Drowning. God’s Black Tears. This might be my favorite track sonically. The guitar-driven instrumental is very pretty to me. It reminds me of one of my favorite songs of all time, Flight of the Navigator by Childish Gambino. This isn’t really a rap song. It features vocals from Nicolas Ratany and The Lil Black Oxen, while Brian Ennals is noticeably absent. Infinity Knives & the featured vocalists kinda take the reigns on this song. Lyrically, this song is honestly just as pretty as it is instrumentally. I found the lyricism to be very interesting personally.

Her eyes well up into the streets
Perfectly round and black like oblivion
Alleys flood and turn into streets
In hopes it will forgive her
She calls her way out for her life
Only condemned by her will to survive
Bitter stitched me a curtain so bright
Made out of lichen for the afterlife

The vocals kinda sound like what I would hear during Mass back when I went to a Catholic school. Normally that would be a bad thing, but for whatever reason it just sounds cool to me here. The climax of the song occurs around the 4:45 mark, at which point the crashing drums and wailing electric guitars come in. This part doesn’t hit quite as hard as I wanted it to. I mean, it’s loud. That’s pretty much all I can say about it. It’s loud. But is it actually enjoyable? Only slightly to be honest. The song as a whole is really cool to me though. I think it’s really awesome.

The last song I wanna talk about is track 9, Two Headed Buffalo. I’ve realized now that most of the highlights for me on this album don’t actually feature Brian Ennals’ rapping. I’ll probably talk about that more in the conclusion to this write-up though. Anyway, this song is quite similar to the title track. The main difference is that this one sounds less religious and more Folk-esque. It sounds like something I’d hear on a farm. It makes me think of cows and chickens havin’ a good time together. It has kind of a cheerful vibe to it. The lyrics are kinda hard to understand, so I can’t speak on whether or not they’re as pretty as those of the title track. I think I like this one even more than that song though. Both of these tracks are over 7 minutes, but neither of them feel like they overstay their welcome too much, at least to me. The guitar-driven production is excellent. The only slight nitpick I have with this song is the outro. I just didn’t find it very funny. The humor fell flat for me a lot of times on this album. This song is fire though. I love it.

---

^{This album is pretty good to me. With that said, I have to admit that it has diminishing returns in my experience. What I mean by that is, the more I listen to it, the less I enjoy it. I thought this album was dope as hell the first time I heard it. In fact, it was a serious contender for my album of the year at one point. However, as I returned to it more and more, I thought to myself either “this is cool, but I want more from this” or “this is a little cheesy.” In regards to my thought about wanting more, I’ll say this: Brian Ennals’ political statements are kind of provocative, but they lack substance a lot of times. He’ll say “fuck Donald Trump” or “Zionists are nazis” with which I of course agree. I just feel like he could’ve gone deeper with it. It felt very surface level to me. When I heard the first track, I thought I was about to hear one of the best political rap albums of the decade, and that just didn’t happen. None of the other songs hit as hard as The Iron Wall to me. I was talking to Grand Mega Flowers from SECRET HOUSE AGAINST ALBUM REVIEWS about this project, and he described a lot of the lyrics as “bumper sticker platitudes.” That’s really the best way for me to kinda illustrate how I felt about the lyricism here. However, without those platitudes, nothing about Brian Ennals’ rapping would really stand out to me. He has a pretty standard flow, and he doesn’t really ever get super personal with his music. I mean, he’s a good rapper. I like him. I just feel like there’s a lot of room for improvement. Infinity Knives’ production is very good. I kinda wish the instrumentals were more “out there” for a lack of a better term. They stood out more on King Cobra to me. The reason I like this new album more is mainly because it’s got a shorter tracklist, so there aren’t a bunch of short, interlude-like tracks that I feel the need to skip. This one’s much more concise, which I appreciate. Anyway, despite my nitpicks, I think this is a dope album. Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments.}

Favorite Song: The Iron Wall
Least Favorite Song: Soft Pack Shorty