The eerie closing song “Space Cowboy” is the confession of someone haunted by the ghost of someone that he feels he failed to save. On “FROSTY,” Zilla’s grimly delivered “I’m sorry that I couldn’t be the one” is a stab to the heart for everyone that feels as though they have an obligation to somebody else that they failed to meet. The most prevalent theme is that of responsibility. In it, the Long Island artist paints expressive pictures of people in seemingly hopeless situations, centering around a simple chorus with the implication of suicide. “dedgrl” is an example of a song which best showcases this improvement. Zilla isn’t quite Kurt Cobain, but he certainly sounds much better than he did just a few years ago, both vocally and in terms of songwriting. The production of some of these songs partially adopt the harsher timbres used in the previous songs, but the melodies match the mood of classic Nirvana songs. In this album, Zilla uses his free space by expanding and improving upon these previous iterations. “DOG BOY” isn’t the first time that ZillaKami has tried his hand at melancholy songs of this style City Morgue’s 2019 album “AS GOOD AS DEAD” features a few songs on which they attempt this. In lieu of his frequent collaborator, ZillaKami lands his largest profile feature yet, collaborating with Lil Uzi in the lead single “BADASS.” If the more ambitious songs of Eternal Atake show anything, it’s that Uzi is willing to use his signature flow over almost anything, letting the main artist do his own thing without having to adjust to fit a more mainstream style. His execution here is pretty good, but it’s easy to imagine that the song would be more complete with a supporting SosMula verse. “Nissan Only” is a song made in the horrorcore style of trap that some of Zilla’s closest contemporaries are popular for. “Lemon Juice” is like a war cry on a punk riff, just as electrifying and only slightly less terrifying than the duo’s best songs. “Chewing Gum!” is an amazing start off to the album, fast-paced and energizing without being excessive. The more aggressive tracks of “DOG BOY” are an iteration of the hard-hitting trap style City Morgue has always been known for. Zilla’s adherence to the “fast song / slow song” format is somewhat limiting, but it results in good music nonetheless. His contribution on the 68-second banger “631 MAKES ME” provides for an attempt, closer than anything else in the duo’s catalogue, to match the ridiculous benchmark of hype set by “33rd Blakk Glass.” The foundation of the song is a heavily distorted classic metal guitar loop, the type of instrumentation that makes you excited because you can already tell the song is going to hit before the beat drops. This gives the songs more character and allows Zilla’s unique flow to stand out. He gives more space in his mixes to simple but addictive guitar loops. Yung Germ, a frequent collaborator with City Morgue and the producer of the majority of the songs on “DOG BOY,” shows a great deal of improvement himself. A perfect fusion of hip-hop, nu metal and grunge, nothing feels out of place. This is in no small part due to the care that was taken in producing and mixing this album. ![]() But Zilla’s integration of the music that he grew up listening to in this album is genuine, and, more importantly, it works. ![]() I’m not in a position to judge someone for being hesitant towards the music of anyone who gives themself the label of “rap-rock,”, with how pervasive the trend of putting 808s on things and saying you made a new genre of music has been in certain pockets of the internet.
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