Xombie - Capital X (Self-Released)

I’ll be the first to say genre titles are suffocating trifles—unnecessary and often damaging to bands, but it’s undeniable that some sounds blend better than others. Rap is one of these genres that, upon combining with other styles, can be brilliantly triumphant or headscratching-ly confusing. Run DMC were geniuses at combining Hip Hop and Rock, but on the other hand you have the recent attempts at mixing Rap with Country. Simply awful. Xombie, with their blend of Rap and Metal, fall somewhere in the middle.

On their new full length, Capital X, they make an entertaining if not entirely successful record. While it’s undoubtedly better than, say, Brad Paisley collaborating with LL Cool J, the clash of the metal and rapping occasionally wears thin. “Miss Behave” is one of the more successful tracks here, the mix working brilliantly, but songs like “Velocarapper” are too over the top to be taken seriously.
Depending on how you view it, Capital X is either fortunately or unfortunately only twenty six minutes long. It’s so short you can’t help but wonder if there is any territory still left unexplored, yet you may find yourself grateful that some of the sillier tracks fly by at break neck speed.

It’s an album where the individual parts are actually better than the sum of them put together, but it’s undeniable there’s potential. The final track “Friday (You Might Have Missed It)” works incredibly well, and it even verges on being catchy. Capital X may only be worth listening to as a passing curiosity, but it’s also an example of what could still come in the future from Xombie.