Review Summary: Army Of The Pharaohs push for huge success but oddly enough, come down short.
Army Of The Pharaohs is like the mixed race Wu-Tang Clan. They have a large multitude of members when only most of them are good. Each rapper has a distinct voice and flow(save for a few). Overall, the similarities to Wu-Tang are noticeably present. However, AOTP have a noticeably different sound. They draw in sounds from Gangsta Rap to Southern Rap to East Coast Rap. They work with a multitude of producers, many of them ranging from unknown presence in the Rap world to some having a huge presence in the world of underground Rap.
The emcees on The Unholy Terror range from amazingly good to terribly bad. You've got rappers who kill every track they're on(Apathy, Celph Titled, Vinnie Paz, Reef Da Lost Cauze) to average mc's(Planetary, King Syze, Esoteric) to just laughably bad(Demoz, Crypt The Warchild). Celph Titled and Apathy mostly bring punchlines and metaphors to the songs while Vinnie Paz boasts about how great he is at rapping and his knowledge of the world. Other rappers on the album rap about killing other rappers and focus mostly on their wordplay skills. Some rappers (like Demoz) are just clones of the other rappers on the album and their verses are hard to sit through because they're boring.
Their are about 8-9 good tracks on The Unholy Terror. The first 5 tracks are amazing but it deteriorates form there. The beats can get pretty lame and the rapping is usually from the worst emcees. The album gets predictable on repeated listening. You start to memorize the verses and the way each song goes. There are more great tracks than bad tracks if anything. a few of the rappers come correct on every song they show up on.
This cd feels like it was rushed in time to meet a deadline and only 9 tracks were given time to be made into good songs. They need to narrow the group down to 5 or 6 rappers for it to have more high-quality songs. Overall, an interesting but flawed affair that needs more polishing to achieve a classic status. Similar to Wu-Tang, but not as good.
