The art of music is the matrimony of different sounds and approaches as each album progresses for each artist. Each album is supposed to be a stepping stone towards artist(s) evolution as a writer/songwriter. When the artist fails to deliver something that is out of their comfort zone they will be labeled as the term “a one trick pony;” meaning that they don’t go against the grain and provide something new that differs from the preceding album. The Army of The Pharoahs could be described in the same vein as this generalization. A group that seems to be making music just for the sake of doing so without any artistic merit behind it. The Army of The Pharoahs released two albums, both of which: have the same content and atmosphere, lyrics and lack of message, eerie and dark production, and lack of musical factor – which leads to stagnancy and repetition, yet it hasn’t sounded so fresh in the way they execute it.

Army Of The Pharoahs consist of 10 rappers: Celph Titled, Apathy, Vinnie Paz, Outerspace, Reef The Lost Cauze, Esoteric, Jus Allah, Chief Kamachi, Doap Nixon, and King Syze. Most of the emcees in the group fail to sound distinguish from the next. There are a few that are exclusive in sound. Apathy was the best emcee in the group that is totally absent from the successor of the first cd. He has a multi-syllabic flow, introspective narratives, engaging cadence, and high vocabulary. Kamachi has that gritty flow with intense imagery, Reef has that naturally streaming flow with well written lyrics. Celph Titled is the only emcee in the group with charisma and a light-hearted presence that makes the CD that much more enjoyable, while Planetary is captivating with his ascent and unique flow. Doap Nixon is a new member in the group that shows plenty of promise with that staggering flow and beastly mic presence. Apathy’s absence from the group on the second CD is where the majority of the faults came from. The album failed to stray from its topical message of battle raps and vicious braggadocio. It felt like sporadic, showy verses to engage the listener with style (being high vocabulary) over substance (array of introspective change.) Yet if you are into this style(like I am when I’m feeling in the mood for battle raps) it’s a very well rounded album (for battle raps that is)

The production on this disk is powerfully made. With help from Non-Phixions Ill Bill, 7L, Snowgoons, Esoteric, DJ Qwestion, Beyonder, and Aktone you are getting top tier boardwork. It is very atmospheric and wraps into a dark and sinister world that ATOP inhabit.”Swords Down” is the albums opener and it is the perfect interlude to the album. Chief Kamachi absolutely extirpates his verse as Planetary. King Syze, Demo and Esoteric sound out of place while Reef The Lost Cauze and Celph Titled end the song on a good note with clever braggadocio. I found it particularly hilarious with Celph Titleds last bars; “”Army of The Pharoahs, we don’t make love songs, we finger f-ck b-tches with Freddy Kreguer gloves on.. ”Dump The Clip” features a melodic, middle eastern hymn drenched in a celebratory horn bassline courtesy of Esoteric that is the albums most refreshing moment. Planetary starts the verse ”With a balloon mind state, I start ego trippin” while the class clown Celph Titled brings it to a comedic ending with ”slicing p*ssy I’m a certified carpet cutter.” “Time To Rock” brings back the old boom-bap reintegrated sound with a fresh updated scratch consisting with a Rakim, Das EFX hook. Vinnie Paz sounds like a diseased, crack smuggling, serial killer as always. He sounded focused on “Servants In Heaven, Kings In Hell” and he still is, just not topically. His subject matter barely strays from violent killings and causing pain with a remorseless vengeance. Demoz sounds like a retarded Young Joc so I think I don’t have to go into deep explanation for that. Celph Titled returns to add some spice with his funny one-liners, and suitcase filled with unexpected, off-the-wall punchlines, for example; ”your next birthday call it off… cuz I got a party favors with an open bar serving molotavs”

“Gun Ballad” continues the ritual of the album. Chief Kamachi opens up with a grasping flow, prestigious mannerisms as he describes the picture of him being the ”Reverend of the rawest land” over nimble guitar riffs with well layered hi-hats. Demoz and Vinnie Paz continue to be worthless, and to make matters worse someone let Demoz write the hook again. Doap Nixon comes on and puts the track back in place with a dexterously, orchestrated verse; I can only hope that Doap Nixon can create a circuit of fans for his upcoming LP “Sour Diezel” in the early quarter of 08 - he has that much potential. DJ Qwestion crafts a more then serviceable, yet simple piece of production on “Strike Back” yet all the emcees sound uninspired excluding Planetary who through the ash, rises like a phoenix through the most monotonous moments. “Frontline” is easily the most creative piece of production on “Ritual Of The Battle.” The epic horns create a earth shattering effect with a depiction that could be compared to the rising of the alien spacecrafts in “War Of The Worlds,” A crusade among enemies and brutally bashing your nemesis to a bloody pulp (okay I’m taking this whole intense piece of production too far, must've been listening to too much Vinnie Paz, but you get the point.) Doap Nixon spits what could be quite frankly the albums best verse stylistically with lines such as; ”My right hook’ll leave your head covered in stretch marks.” and ”your eyes can’t hit what they can’t see, the M1’ll leave ya dead like gang green.” the rest of the emcees don't even live up to the stature of his grandiose verse, yet as repetitive as it may sound Planetary carries the rest of the track on his back. Then again the boardwork is so fantastic that the song couldn't falter regardless of bromidic verses by Demoz, Vinnie Paz, and the monotone, never fluctuating of flow King Syze. "Don't Cry" is a touching song about survival in harsh conditions but feels like that ATOP shouldn't walk away from their comfort zone. Think of "In The Arms Of Angels" with a better beat. "Pages Of Blood" is mesmerizing based off production album; consisting of a rock/techno hybrid sound in which adapts to the underwhelming verses yet makes it not even matter with such a strong structure of production. "Bloody Tears" is real ear friendly with the unique piano melody in which Planetary and Doap perform spectacularly while Paz rants on with his theatrics calling Kanye West "A gay rapper." Ah Vinnie, when will you ever quite being so prejudice? ha.

"Seven" is a prodigious posse cut with production cultivated by Ill Bill with Necro like sampling techniques of scary wind chimes, dark backdrop, and eerie drum loop. Every rapper comes correct especially Reef The Lost Cauze, Planetary, Celph Titled, and Doap Nixon. There are so many ill lines in this song that I'm going to infrequently pick my favorites.

"Alot of rappers try approachin the omen, my words'll punish the people while I'm up at the podium." - Planetary

"You are now rocking with the illest clique in the continent, rise the prominence, in my prime like optimus, stand in astonishment, act as conglomerate, and axis of evil, I know where Osama is." - Reef The Lost Cauze

"They say they want the hood in here, well they call me first, I give these rappers Gatorade cuz they ball with thirst" - Doap Nixon

or my favorite verse on the whole album....

"You better cross ya T's, cuz we'll dotcha eyes, you can say that you specialize, but Pharaohs will optimize, backstage you'll get a b-tch slap back there, the mack blare like dirty south pimp smack clap snares (Yeeeeeeaaaahhhh!), holy paragraphs, what kinda sh-t is that? I'm Jesus in the flesh so this is motha-fu-ckin christian rap, ya'll just christmas wrap, must be the secret Santa, my reindeer aim near hit you with the antlers, I made em go easy, called off the walls by my ATOP radio cd, cuz you'll ain't worthy of grenades and RPG's, slit throat, hope you float with sardines and seaweed, cuz this is C-E-L-P-H, demonic symphony...listen to the hell we make, and a week before your kids birthday came, you didn't wait to have to see the candles to see the 9 flame. " - Celph Titled...WHOOOAH!! Now imagine that verse with bucket loads of charisma.

Army Of The Pharoahs strongest point is also their biggest detriment, in a way that is. In actuality it is Jus Allah which was the biggest fault. ATOP should've left him out. Remember how Jus Allah had an appealing cadence/voice/persona on "Violent By Design?" To describe his voice in a nutshell would be that he was taking steroids every day since the release of VBD or that he got raped horribly and is in a clandestine room full of spite and hatred for the world. His voice sounds like Satan went into his vocal cords, vomited, swallowed a razor, then went to a record a cd. He sounds like a devil worshiping fiend. Jus is such an impairment that the CD loses half a star based on him alone! It is so annoying that every time his verse comes on I have to fast forward it. "Blue Steel" had some potential. It actually isn't even Jus Allahs fault, well 55% of it is Jus, but Vinnie is uninspired and the whole Paz/Allah reunion song fails miserably here. First off it has no hook, the production is head noddable with razor sharp samples combined with an astronomically bloodcurling bassline and there is no chemistry what so ever. Then when all seems bad Jus Allah goes on the mic once again and dismantles the track to pieces (not in a good way I might add!) Oh god, lets see what other tracks Allah destroys. "Through Blood By Thunder" is actually "Ritual Of The Battle"'s most well rounded beats provided by 7L with a twisty, deranged loop consisting of tight loops and frightening kicks. The only redeeming quality of the song is Kamachi who delivers once again; I mean he has too - Crypt The Warchild, Demoz and Vinnie Paz are bad enough. But to add Jus Allah is like severing my hands for fun. Dude just doesn't sound like he wants to live anymore and that is widely apparent on the haunting piano sample piece of production on "Drama Theme." Not only is his voice a serious drawback but his lyrics are not impressive by any means. He rhymes one word basically his whole verse without any initial style. It's like Kamachi is the blood cleaner because he cleans up the mess that Jus Allah left. When Celph Titled comes on the track it's as if nobody else deserves attention with his jaw-dropping performance; "Surgeon generals warning, I'm surgically injuring informants, that resemble univalent, deformed kids." Luckily somebody cleaned the mess, I mean somebody could've slipped and died, not that Jus Allahs vocals in their solitude couldn't do that.

"Ritual Of The Battle" was actually better then I previously thought it would be. Apathy was needed on this disk, but Celph Titled clearly took over the throne as the best in the ATOP with Aps absence and on "The Ritual Of The Battle," followed by Doap Nixon, Reef, Kamachi and Planetary. While I would love to see the Army improve and expand topically, it seems that once they are out of there comfort zone that they are vulnerable to attack, i.e. "Into The Arms Of Angels," and "Don't Cry." So I recommend that they continue there spirit and try something new besides the predicted battle raps/braggadocio and see what else they can bring to the table. While the group may create a repetitious sound, it is just something that Babygrande/Jmt/ATOP fans are used to, plus if Celph Titled wasn't in the group there would be a lot more complaints of how it would be even more banausic. But for now this is a healthy (when not decapitated by Jus Allah)disc in the area of battle raps; I just hope that the Army bring more weapons of thought for next time.

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Exercising