What better way to break away from Halloween than with Key Largo, Florida emcee Darby O’Trill releasing his seventh record? He released his full-length debut album Blood, Guts & a Whole Lotta Love in the fall of 2018, and about a year later collaborated with Fester, as well as working extensively with Chapter 17/Psychopathic Records in-house producer Devereaux. -19 The pandemic brought him to work on his critically acclaimed third album, Piecemeal. Darby’s ended up signing an album deal with Lyrikal Snuff Productionz and a year ago with Gully, a modern evil shit classic. Amputation is a solid prelude to The Grave, which is even better. Darby’s official C17 debut at Creek turned out to be his best performance since Gully, and it feels like GARDeN can join their ranks.
“Diet Root Beer Shampoo” is a 100-second diabolical trap opener, with Devereaux chiming in, of course, talking about the portal to the abyss of hell in his apartment basement, while “The Sound of Suffering Trapped Skin” features some hi-hat and guitar work. Showing murderous intent in the game. “Quit Lookin At Me, You’re Making My Shadow Nervous” wonders what the hell you want instead of another trap metal beat, while “Hell Been Callin'” produced by Shaggytheairhead and Mythic Mindz reclaims the title of the year Aura of Spring 10 Bandz.
As for “Dick Down in a Bucket Fulla Beans,” we have Darby going further down the trap metal rabbit hole, feeling the fire burning around him, and then “Crooked Pastor Blaster” becomes a sequel to “CPK (Crooked Preacher Killas)” from The Insane Clown Posse and a gang that delivers raw justice. The bassy “Fiery Fish Pizza TMDWU” has some cool Memphis undertones and feels like something is talking inside his head, but “The Omen of the Body Bag” is another trap metal head-smasher.
“Multicolored Mood Ring” retains the heavy guitars and hi-hats that remind us all that life and death are alchemies, while “Blistered Hands Wipe the Sweat From My Brow” retains the trap metal flare that parallels ICP’s “My Axe”. Except he meant a shovel instead of an axe. Shaggytheairhead’s only single production credit falls on “Skull Football,” which gives it a standard trap vibe so Darby warns about his nausea while the vivid “A Man Made of Scars and Guilt” questions him why try
Ouija Macc appears on “Baptized in a Vat Acid,” aggressively leaving their opposition in the dirt, while “Smokeless Tobacco Spit is Gross, Just Like You” once again uses trap metal to spit out evil shit. “Curse of the Ancient Skin Tag” hellishly hints at the end, while “Burden of Existence” is a notable blend of trap metal and emo rap. “Close the door and don’t let the world in” concludes his C17 sophomore effort by talking about death.
Having been familiar with Darby since his scrappy beginnings, he has come a long way in the past 4 years, and GARDeN’s introductory work with Creek & of Gully is further proof that in addition to Chapter 17 embodying a new generation of jugglers. Aside from the emo rap undertones, it sounds more like trap metal than his previous material, colliding that style with horrorcore in an elegant way.
Rating: 9/10
