Here is the 7th studio LP from Key Largo, Floridian emcee Darby O’Trill. A close collaborator of Chapter 17/Psychopathic Records in-house producer Devereaux, their debut together Piecemeal received critical acclaim during the COVID-19 pandemic & signed Lyrikal Snuff Productionz & fulfilled it over 3 years ago with Gully, which is a modern day wicked shit classic. Amputate was a solid prelude to The Tomb, the latter was even better. Darby’s official C17 debut Creek became his best since Gully as did GARDeN last fall, taking us to the WIL(low) only a couple weeks out from the Gathering of Legends or the 25th annual Gathering of the Juggalos & of course The 2 Day War between Juggalo Championship Wrestling (JCW) & Game Changer Wrestling (GCW).
“strangling my boss with my wallet chain” made for an eerie trap opener produced by none other than Devereaux talking about death residing in his mind whereas “i saw the magician pull that rabbit out of his ass” wickedly flexes the tricks he has up his sleeve. “biting my tongue because there is nothing left to eat” talks about rather being the clown than the man behind the mask while “the scent of a 3 day old corpse rotting in a flawda attic” professes himself as Emperor of Bugs.
Shaggytheairhead hops behind the boards for the uncanny “barglegore gurglebach & the curious case of the vomiting shoes” talking about death fulfilling him & following “if i wuz more like u i’d b better off dead” pulling from Mobb to talk about performing an autopsy on a live subject “the time i found bums having sex in a construction site porta potty” after the “you got anything else?” skit goes for a boom bap vibe finding himself unsure of where he’s going.
“da faladgulations ov mane” professes that he won’t ever become the type of person others want him to be while “i have alot of tattoos & most of them are shitty but she doesn’t seem to mind” harks back to the trap metal/horrorcore fusions on GARDeN talking about necrophilia. “17 pounds of crabdick at nates got me hallucinating, thanks parker” after the “1 nu message” skit keeps the heavy guitars & hi-hats in the fold to talk about a woman haunting him.
We have Darby feeling like the reaper’s close on the trap metal “is that a cat standing on my chest or my sleep paralysis demon?” admitting he never found his way home while “crippled by the thought of tomorrow” fuses trap & rock to talk about not being ok. “i ordered a falafel wrap and was served a severed hand on rye” tackles the theme of cannibalism over hi-hats & a nu metal riff that is until the “jerky jerrys” skit.
“drowned in a pool of kinetic sand” featuring Ouija Macc talks about not lacking intelligence despite their violent tendencies while “some guy told my girlfriend to dump me because im fat” opens up regarding not doing too well. “the vanilla scented mask of the killer” points out the reason he’s been getting hate & “now thats what i call an album no one is gonna care about” ends by talking about people not wanting him around because of him letting them down.
Once you’ve already gone down the Creek & past the GARDeN into the marsh amongst the vines where the lost souls gather, WIL(low) outdoes both it’s predecessors in becoming the darkest & most personal piece of work Darby O’Trill has ever made. Continuing to embrace the trap metal sound prominently, he near-perfectly takes us in the shoes of the lost & distraught wandering this earth searching for solace & thinking they’re alone.
Score: 9/10