Band:	Death Grips
Album:	Year Of The Snitch
Style:	Experimental Hip-Hop
Release date:	June 2018

01. Death Grips Is Online
02. Flies
03. Black Paint
04. Linda's In Custody
05. The Horn Section
06. Hahaha
07. Shitshow
08. Streaky
09. Dilemma
10. Little Richard
11. The Fear
12. Outro
13. Disappointed

For some, the addition of Sacramento rulebreakers Death Grips on this site was the Metal Storm equivalent of the Monica Lewinsky scandal: an impulsive move on the part of the powers that B that was only destined for failure. Yet was it really, when one stops to consider how the bizarre genre bending of Mr. Grips suits our quirky community, and the degree to which they've bridged the gap between the hip hop and metal audiences unlike any other group this decade? This reviewer thinks not.

Vividly recalling that moment in 2011 when Death Grips dropped their debut Exmilitary mixtape and floored just about every fan of darker, no-holds-barred hip hop, at the risk of sounding cliché allow me to say that they've come a long way from there. 2018's Year Of The Snitch continues Death Grips' prolific "one release per year" tendency, and seems to be nothing less than a grand encapsulation of everything they've yet done, while also hinting at things to come. While the group were never just about hip hop to begin with, from 2013's Government Plates on they seem to have been a lot more interested in exploring the electro/industrial and hardcore aspects of their sound, a path that continues with Year Of The Snitch. Aside from MC Ride's rapping (which is still quite unusual on its own), there's little to detect here in the way of "traditional" hip hop songwriting, the music being far more inclined to an almost metallic, synth driven experimentation than anything else.

The real seller on Year Of The Snitch is the number of different stylistic techniques it travels between while still appearing completely natural and not becoming too messy. Particularly, Death Grips display an incredibly strong ability to transition between heavier and lighter aspects of electronic and industrial music here. Tracks like "Death Grips Is Online," "Black Paint," and the almost grind-ish "Shitshow" are absolute bangers, far more in line with metal and hardcore music than with hip hop. While they really get the blood pumping, however, as one listens to the album more it becomes apparent that these types of tracks are always positioned either before or in between mellower, more relaxed ones like "Flies," "Hahaha," "Linda's In Custody," "Streaky," etc. This shows that over time Death Grips have really learned how to space out the various climaxes and decrescendos of their music, and on Year Of The Snitch their amazing talent for mood shifting is on display perhaps more than ever before.

Many times I find myself contemplating what the ultimate legacy of Death Grips is going to end up being in the long run. If they were to break up tomorrow (which they already fooled us with once), what would be left to reflect on? Unquestionably, it would be a powerful, multidimensional discography of a group unafraid to shatter artistic borders, to take the whole idea of merging hip hop with more extreme metal and industrial influences and running to Hell and back with it. While many never really "got it" with these guys and still probably won't be moved with this new album, there is little denying the extreme importance for musical evolution that Death Grips have demonstrated in the 2010s, and will hopefully continue to demonstrate into the future. Although they certainly didn't need any further proof of their relevancy, Year Of The Snitch merely reinforces it yet again, and only continues to build upon an already fearsome reputation.

The year is here.