Readykill - In Riverz of Blood (Buback - 1994)

Readykill is another one of those English rhyming German groups who took the UK hardcore sound to deeper depths of darkness. This is their 2nd release "Riverz of Blood" which despite listing 10 tracks is really only 2 "proper" songs (the rest comprises interludes and instrumentals and it even includes an accapella version of a prior 1 minute interlude, go figure LOL). I actually remember buying this and getting excited seeing the number of tracks, only to be disappointed when I realised I was only getting basically the maxi single of sorts that I ended up with. Oh well, the two full tracks here are quite magnificent and still very, very much worth it.

The first of the full tracks is "Riverz of Blood" which finally comes in at track 3 (after 5 minutes worth of intro buildup - via track 1 and 2) is an epic track clocking in at just over 5 minutes. As many other tracks from the era similarly do, this one starts off with a horror movie excerpt with a psychotic killer referencing the "beauty" of stabbing and mutilation which sets the scene for the song. As the song intro fades we are greeted by tense and dramatic violins and strings, a mid tempo strong beat and booming, seemingly forever resonating bass which are the forces behind the heavy soundscape of darkness here. Whilst I'm not overly familiar with the who's who of Readykill (the CD booklet lists TEN group members) the two MC's on this track, Masquerade and Shootya Dead, are both solid. The commanding deep voiced Shootya Dead particularly stands out as impressive here and his higher vocal pitched partner in crime, the rather British sounding Masquerade, compliments Shootya well with his rougher style. No prizes for guessing the lyrical content here, yes it's all about blood, 666 and other themes of darkness inside the mind of a killer. A very interesting feature of this song (courtesy of the liner note information) is that there are apparently THREE DJ's on the cuts, which must be some kind of hip hop world record ! Although admittedly, I'm not sure where all three feature as the song is not particularly heavy on DJ work aside from one breakdown in the middle of the track where some DJ (or perhaps all three) kicks it nicely. Three DJ's or not, this song plays almost like a britcore opera with it's changeups and other goings on and truly something to behold. There's somewhat of a "militaristic" touch of First Frontal Assault feel to it also which only adds to it's appeal and cements it in the realms of classic britcore.

Immediately following is our other full track, "The Evilution (the 666 moves quick but ...)" and it's obvious from the title that you're getting another attack of devilish horror here although this time it seems that our MC's are trying to run from the devil rather than residing in the mind of one as seemed to be the case in the prior track. Another 5 min long operatic epic track with movie/spoken excerpts and multiple stop/starts with beat fade outs and fade ins, this one operates at a far slower, creepier pace than "Riverz ..." and it emits more of a "alone at 3am in a graveyard" sparse vibe of fear, especially with the addition of howls throughout and also violins used sparingly creating appropriate tension and drama. The same two MC's are on duty again and Masquerade seems to get far more airtime here and suits this track perfectly.

It's actually a nice contrast to have these two tracks back to back as "Rivers of Blood" is the aggressive, in your face, head smasher type of darkness where "The Evilution ..." is the sparse, slow and low, hiding in the shadows darkness. Both quite different in sound but both the same in their delivery of 100% hardcore hip hop and it goes to show that "britcore" doesn't always necessarily have to pump out beats at 140BPM with rapid rhyming.

As I mentioned at the outset, there are actually 10 "tracks" in total here and perhaps other people, especially DJ's and producer types, may get something out of the 8 non-vocal tracks here but I rarely ever listen to anything on this other than the two full efforts described above.

Readykill released a classic EP prior to this which will get a writeup on here one day also but aside from that it's a damn shame that these guys didn't release at least a couple albums with songs like the ones described here as I'm sure such albums would have been all time favourites in my collection.