For their third album, the trio of emcees Breaf, Dream and Non once again return to Dutch duo Funckarma for their dark, downtempo productions that sample from spacey sounds and synth effects. Combine the sci-fi-inflected horrorcore of Shadows 1, 2 and 3, whose abstract flows describe body-mutilating metaphors of emcee dominance, and Shadow Huntaz comes off like a mix of Anti-Pop Consortium and Kool Keith. Dark Matter also contains a lot of Christian imagery – and sometimes even a little Christian sentiment, with lines like ‘They tried to persuade me to sell rock on the block in front of old ladies / that drove my soul crazy’ (’Goodnite’) adding a dash of reality to the musical murder and Mayhem. Non, with his elastic flow, is the best rapper of the three, but sadly none of the emcees is free from bumbling and stumbling on words and flow. Still, Shadow Huntaz deliver their lines with a believable swagger, and they do a pretty good job of flowing on Funckarma’s sometimes slow-as-molasses beats. And it’s these beats that are the most compelling reason to search out Dark Matter, a concept the trio obviously understands considering the inclusion of Don and Roel Funcken’s instrumentals on a second bonus disc (while their previous two albums were also available in instrumental versions).
Much Respect love and thanks to the artist Menno Fokma that rendered the Dark Matter cover art
