producers: hiram

Conspiracy theories and religion has always inspired hip hop artists. And with the killing of William Cooper, who wrote and influenced many with his book "Behold A Pale Horse", this album came at the right moment, for us to pay homage to Mr. Cooper. But as this is the review of the "Of Epic Proportion" album by Sicarii, one artist that has been enormously influenced by the theories and dogmatism that are spread amongst the buffs, we shall be focusing on the twelve tracks given to us. And so we are getting a dozen that is giving us name dropping, recitation, coupled with rhetoric to sound clever, that unfortunately is too often not coupled with additional arguments to discuss the thesis, and unfortunately coupled with synthesizer heavy beats, that are only steering clear of disaster, due to them often featuring good melodious structures.

The point being addressed on "Introduction" is that many tribes and cultures have benefited from something more evolved, without yet being completely proven who that could have been. We are quickly moving on to the title track "Of Epic Proportions", where Hiram, the sole producer on the album, is doing one of those melodious beats. Sicarii is keeping his flow within the structure of double, triple and so on rhymes, that in this case is used to mainly open the stream of communication between the listener and the emcee. But with "Characteristics Of War" featuring Bishop Emmaculate, the sniffing each other is over, and Sicarii is really getting serious. Bishop can be considered a fellow soldier, and he has the more appealing voice, and also a lesser offbeat flow. The 'eeeh' impression we get from this track is however mainly due to the weak beat. Something that is tried to be prevented on "Seal The Gates", an international secret intelligence rhetoric track, that is then moving on to become a follower of some galaxy mysteries.

"Godspell" is made more with the voice samples during the chorus, while "The Purge" is not as appealing as "Omega Apocrypha", a track that gets us going, with the beat that is anxious like a calm adrenaline rush, and the voice also merging with the music. The Bishop returns for "Splitting Of The Elm", while Lord K is the guest featured on the harder "Anatomy Of An Alliance". Here we get more of the 'apocalyptic narrative', that also includes mentioning of religious troubling, findings and salvation. That can further be found on "144.000", that gives us one of the best beats, with Hiram sampling a string section, that is sounding strangely familiar too. As good this was, as bad is the beat on "Martyr Syndrome", that does enough wrong with the instruments having that synthetic style as is to be prevented. What then takes us to the last track, that's called "Transfiguration" and that's once more featuring Bishop. Here we are getting compensation for the wrong doings, as this is simply ill, and it makes clear that we are leaving this album behind with a good impression.

However, what's definitely holding back the album is that there's so little variation on the album. The topics do change, the beats don't sound similar, however, it still remains in the same flavor spectrum. The lyrics are also somewhat masturbative, as for a big part, they are written to sound clever, without us giving much to take in and benefit from. So while we are very interested in their core and the content's background, discussing it would have been more to our liking, than using it, merely to come with some ol' different ill ish. However, in total this record is still doing a whole lot right, but it's the next effort that's hopefully going to be fine tuned, to then be the true ill ish.