Canadian nu-metal act Slaves on Dope have been bringing their alternative sounds to the masses since the mid-'90s, and though this style of metal has long since fallen out of favor with most serious fans of the genre, the band continues to carry on and deliver what they do best as if it was still 2002. Horse is their latest release, featuring 10 hard hitting tracks as well as cover art from Marvel Comics artist Marco Rudy. Plenty of healthy grooves and booming riffs to be found here, as on "Electric Kool-Aid" and "K-Hole", while the band haven't swayed from their penchant to delivering socio-political commentary, here in the form of "Health Food & Heroin" and "Freebasing". If you thought the days of combining metal with rap was old news, well, forget it, as Slaves on Dope team with Run DMC's Darryl McDaniels on "Script Writer", while over on "Liquid Sunshine" the band are joined by Bad Brains vocalist H.R., as he adds his hardcore/punk styled vocals to this otherwise fairly catchy nu-metal track. The Damn Truth singer Lee-la Baum adds her ethereal voice to the atmospheric metal tune "Codependency", and Mastodon's Bill Kelliher contributes some guitar licks to the grinding "Interplanetary Mission", one of the albums slower, more melodic numbers. The one song here on Horse that actually has some 'hit' potential is the catchy closer "Disco Biscuit", complete with a hook laden chorus, some fat riffs, and loads of alluring atmosphere.
Though a decent enough album, Horse still seems 10-15 years too late in a metal word that has changed quite a bit in that time span. You have to give the band credit though for soldiering on, and it's clear they quite enjoyed making this album as the results show.
Track Listing
01. Electric Kool-Aid
02. Health Food & Heroin
03. Freebasing
04. K-Hole
05. Script Writer (feat. Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels)
06. Interplanetary Mission (feat. Bill Kelliher)
07. Liquid Sunshine (feat. HR)
08. Codependency (feat. Lee-La Baum)
09. P&P
10. Disco Biscuit
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