Onry Ozzborn

A member of the massive Oldominion crew, Onry Ozzborn's Venom EP was the fastest selling BSI release to date, prompting the label to drop his debut album, Alone, as the inaugural release for their new One Drop hip-hop imprint. Labelled as "dark underground hip-hop" (let's be honest, it's really just horrorcore for the new millennium), Onry laces Alone with some intelligent campfire stories about serial killers, ghosts, demons, conjurers and other psychos and freaks. The twist? Onry gives his horrorcore a spiritual (read: Christian) bent that sounds odd on paper but tends to mesh. Complaints only come after repeated plays, making noticeable Onry's fascination with name-dropping lame hardcore rock groups. On one song it might be considered conceptual, but when it appears on at least three songs ("Heaven is Coming," "Virtual Ursilah" and "Free Foralax") it just sounds redundant and silly. In fact, "Forensics" uses a bad rock chorus that any of the names he mentions throughout the album would even turn down. But, the moment that very nearly forces me to get out the asbestos gloves and remove the CD from the player with a pair of very long tongs is when he raps, "Onry is a member of Slipknot," on "Heaven is Coming." What? Why? I'm embarrassed for Mr Ozzborn. Otherwise, Alone is a great piece of "dark underground hip-hop" that would have made a nice Halloween treat.