Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 07/11/05
Label: Definitive Jux

It's tempting to draw parallels between Chris Palko, aka Cage, and Eminem. There are certainly occasions when the pair sound alike but, beyond style, it's their mutual artistic personas, founded on hardship and dysfunctional circumstance that bear real comparison. Both filter aspects of their experience, otherwise tough to tackle head on, through alter egos. But, on "Hell's Winter" Cage bravely emerges as the first person narrator of his unfeasibly painful family history.

In the second track we're introduced to Palko's father, dishonourably discharged from the US military for using and selling heroin. Against a chopped-up slide guitar courtesy of Def Jux production honcho El-P, he recalls a five-year-old self, helping his father to shoot up:"'Chris we're gonna play a game alright?'/ Wrapped my rubber snake around his arm and made me pull it tight/ Hit himself with a spike, drew blood and pulled my mask down/ My hand blue until he let my arm go and he passed out" It makes Kanye West's average existential dilemma ("diamonds and threesomes or spiritual peace of mind? So many choices…") seem somewhat absurd.

It's not a rare moment of pained confessional either. Raw memories are exorcised in all the record's most intimate tracks as the devil-like apparition of the father persists in invading any peace the son pursues. Perhaps in a bid to ease the workload on listeners, some of the tortuous recollections are transformed into narrative. But, their impact is dulled by Cage's tendency to apply the same shock tactics to his fictional scenarios. The disarmingly titled "Subtle Art Of The Break-Up Song" proves to be sledgehammer-crafted tale of a girl killed in a car crash on her birthday by a boyfriend high on Ketamine.

Amidst the gloom, El-P sensibly pulls together somewhat less murky soundscapes than the Def Jux norm, enlisting RJD2, DJ Shadow and Blockhead to help him out. Fuzz guitars, sleazy synths and electro beats are variously employed with surprisingly focussed results that sharpen Cage's imagery. The album's cathartic high points justify the all-star line-up. But when Cage strays from the confessional and returns to the limited narrative themes explored on previous releases, he falters, having neither the wit nor economy of Eminem's best writing.

Still, "Hell's Winter" takes brave steps towards a hip-hop aesthetic which speaks to those left behind by the latter's transformation into corporate rap's favourite comic turn.

    by James Poletti