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7 / 10 ARE YOU LOOKING FOR TROUBLE? IF SO, Killarmy can probably provide. Wu Tang Clan's self-styled 'militant wing', low-lights of their four-year history include one member serving two stints in prison and their manager being gunned down.



Still, that's no cause for adopting a less hardcore ethos, it seems. The cover art of their second LP has them dressed as gun-toting militia; while lyrics include talk of the devil, vicious cuts to the jugular and the Vietnam and Gulf Wars. Not, then, another case of hip-hop revisiting the frolics of its break-dancing past...



Yet despite their distance from the zeitgeist, Killarmy deliver the same menace and bleak kismets with style (via the lazy growl of 'Allah Sees Everything' and barbed ranting of 'Murder Venue', in particular). While producer 4th Disciple keeps the music stark and minimal, allowing the lyrics to unfurl in a mind-rattlingly verbose fashion.



Compared with Wu proper, they don't yet boast a full range of rap 'characters' but, conversely, at least they've a full measure of teeth-gnashing fanaticism on their side.



And don't hurt us, we think you're pretty good.

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