Hardcore shows have a way of prompting eureka moments in attendees. Whether this is owed to the music’s carnal purity, its defiant spirit, or its crass spectacle is uncertain. Either way, these shows are often sites of transformation. Such is the case with Ho99o9, a duo based in Los Angeles who splice old-school hardcore with gritty hip-hop. Growing up in New Jersey’s public housing system, its members—who go by theOGM and Eaddy—stuck mainly to the likes of DMX and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. During their teen years, in the late-2000s, the pair began venturing across the Hudson to see lauded punk bands like Hoax and Dawn of Humans.
Ho99o9 represents a merger of these two worlds. Their live shows—performed with Black Flag drummer Brandon Pertzborn—exist largely to disorient fans and sponsors. For example, shortly before Ho99o9’s scheduled stint on the 2015 Warped Tour, at the festival’s kick-off party, Eaddy took the stage in a wedding dress, like Satan’s bride shimmying and screaming for a crowd of industry types and teenage fans. Unsurprisingly, organizers booted them from the tour. More recently, SXSW organizers had to shut down one of Ho99o9’s sets two songs in because the moshing had grown out of hand. (That’s not even getting into the onstage nudity or the food fights.) Volatility is their brand, both in concert and on United States of Horror, their debut album.
United States of Horror is self-described as Ho99o9’s “crossbreed mutant” baby and rightly so. It’s a proudly ugly Frankenstein, an LP that clambers along at a fitful pace, stopping for the occasional smoke break. TheOGM raps as if he’s got gravel stuck in his windpipes; Eaddy is his more restrained counterpart, though not by much. They trade turns at the mic like a tag-team of shadowboxers, a deadly game plan between them. Following a highly-technical opening salvo of sharp, barked syllables, they bludgeon the listener with hair-raising screams.
The vessels by which Ho99o9’s hellscapes are expressed span the whole spectrum of sonic violence. “Bleed War” and “Face Tatt” tap into Godflesh’s low-res, deadpanned miasma, conjuring up an apocalyptic rave. “Hydrolics” and “Splash” sport the intimidating, bass-boosted palette typically seen in trap music. A glitchy mushroom cloud sends “Knuckle Up” into careening Code Orange territory; similar sounds power the title track’s scorching chorus.
Ho99o9’s reputation for political cynicism, musical disorder, and commercial self-sabotage invites comparisons to Death Grips: another pack of punk-rap provocateurs dead-set on disruption, playing festivals just to revel in the audience’s confusion. But there’s a crucial distinction. Unlike their viral, hermit-like peers, Ho99o9 see a party in the West’s spiral towards oblivion—and United States of Horror is a compelling invitation.
