Bodies Below Sea Level are a duo consisting of Grand Rapids, Michigan emcee, singer/songwriter, producer & Dirtcore Music founder Crossworm alongside Hampton, Virginia recording artist Samson Samson. Both of whom have already collaborated with each other on a handful of songs over the years up to this point like “Killmode” or “Open Up Your Mind” & of course most notably “Bodies Below Sea Level”, but are finally taking it to a new level by coming off Hallowicked to release an official eponymous full-length debut studio album.
After the “Respawn” intro, the first song “The Devil’s Own” is this industrial hip hop/rap rock mixture talking about being heathens right down to the bone whereas “Laughter (Bang, Bang, Bang)” industrially raps about being guaranteed to stop your momentum. “Evil” works in some dark synthesizers to talk about being wicked people & “Sever” embraces the rap rock influences further on top of the horrorcore lyricism.
“Loser” officially reaches the halfway point of the LP on the rap rock tip letting off some angst for almost 3 minutes just before “Infinite” hooks up some hi-hats & a blobby bassline to talk about the wicked shit always being inside of them to this very day. “Trouble in the Library of Corpses” happens to be another well-crafted industrial/horrorcore blend leading into “Unrepenting” pulling inspiration from Depeche Mode.
Meanwhile on “Eat Myself Alive”, we have Grounds joining over a trap beat admitting that’s the way they feel sometimes & the official closing track “We’re the Dead” proceeding the “Summoning” interlude ends the way they started from the industrial hip hop/rap rock influences to the lyrics talking about them traveling beyond the grave.
Assuming this is only the beginning for them, Bodies Below Sea Level’s self-titled debut gets November going by taking 36 minutes to properly introduce themselves as a unit. The production balancing industrial hip hop & rap rock proves to be a refreshing change of pace within the underground wicket shit scene, building most of the lyrical themes around horror.
Score: 8/10