Hi. My name is Alexx, and I’m a member of the Church of Xul.

I’m willing to bet that 99.9% of people reading this (As I’m reading it) have never heard of the growing American phenomenon that is Alla Xul Elu. The up and coming kings of horrorcore and dark masters of their genre, the trio that is Billy Obey, Joe Black and Lee Carver are truly incredible rappers who deserve a lot more credit and spotlight than they are currently getting.

Joe Black and Billy Obey released music independently after forming A.X.E in 2014 and, joined by new member Lee Carver, signed to Detroit-based label Majik Ninja Entertainment in mid 2018. There are few who give them a chance that don’t come out impressed (And a little bloody), so to raise awareness of them and their music on this side of the pond, I decided to review their immensely satisfying album from 2018, The Almighty.

No, I don’t know what they look like under the masks except that Joe Black has a beard.

20 tracks in total, comprised of 16 songs, an introduction featuring Bill Moseley (House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects) and three skits, this album definitely packs a devastating punch on every listen. The first track ‘The Parish’ delivers a solid verse from each member, giving new listeners a chance to familiarise themselves with the different lyrical styles between them, and I for one appreciated this as The Almighty was my first Alla Xul Elu album.

Highlights from the album include ‘The Parish’, ‘Belial’, ‘The Forgotten’ and, accompanied by a music video for it, ‘Forever Face’ which you can follow this link here to watch. https://youtu.be/0dvgioq2UXk

The majority of horrorcore artists come up with their own idea for how to present themselves when on stage and in public appearances, like Insane Clown Posse always wearing the clown facepaint. A.X.E. incorporate their personas into their music being based on their created religion, The Church of Xul. To enforce this, a lot of their songs have religious sounding beats and echoing choruses as if performed in a church, which lends a truly creepy authenticity to their performances. Add that to the horrific looking masks that they wear constantly, and it’s not hard to see how they have built such a loyal, almost cult-like fanbase.

Like most things, Alla Xul Elu’s violent and often disturbing lyrical content isn’t for everyone, but to truly experience best in class horrorcore, you can’t do much better as a jumping off point than The Almighty. Even if you don’t generally like horror movies or violent themes in media, you may find something you like within this album and of all the horrorcore albums I have listened to in my years as a fan of the genre, this is one of the best introductions that I can think of for it.

I will take the fact you have now heard of Alla Xul Elu as a small victory if nothing else and I hope I have managed to convince you to give their music a chance and to check out some of their other releases; all their EP’s are all enjoyable enough that you can give any of them a shot, and I won’t try to lead you to any one in particular.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this and I’ll be back soon with another album review. Thank you for reading; Praise Xul!

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