ALBUM REVIEW: "There Existed An Addiction To Blood" by clipping.

For those that are unaware, clipping. are a trio made up of producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes, with Daveed Diggs providing the lyrical content, delivered with unbelievable skill and dexterity. They are known for their experimental sounds, driven often by noise, static, field recordings and distortion, and their previous album Splendour & Misery used their signature sound to carve out a concept album about an escaped prisoner in space - I wrote about it a while back, you can read that piece here. On their newest release, There Existed An Addiction To Blood, clipping. take their cinematic and world-building approach to music making and use it to craft what is essentially a horror-themed rap album.

Firstly, the sound of the album. Hutson and Snipes' work on this album is really excellent. Coming from a film and sound design background, those influences really show through on There Existed An Addiction To Blood, an album that dives deep into modern and classic sounds of horror cinema. The piano motifs on second track "Nothing Is Safe" has echoes of a classic John Carpenter score, but on the flip side much of the album sounds like modern entries into the horror pantheon of soundtracks. "He Dead", "Club Down", "All In Your Head" and "Attunement" all make great use of ambient noise and drone-influenced sounds, drawing to mind the sounds of modern horror cinema, but There Existed An Addiction To Blood manages to keep the balance between modern and classic finely tuned, with really effective callbacks, too. On in particular really worked for me, and that was the introduction of what sounded to me like a reference to the classic soundtrack from The Shining on "Story 7". "La Mala Ordina" (which features The Rita, Elcamino and Benny The Butcher) reminded me of some of the sounds on David Lynch's wonderful Twin Peaks: The Return, which can only be a good thing in my books.

But such amazing and textured work on the part of Hutson and Snipes is made truly special and elevated by the way Daveed Diggs' lyrics and delivery, supported by a smattering of guests, weaves in and out to create a genuinely unsettling and uncomfortable experience of discomfort. As usual his delivery is highly skilled and doubles down into his uniquely monotone, mechanic style. The stories are graphic, vivid, disturbing, sometimes genuinely horrifying, and play into the atmosphere created by the music almost perfectly. The interplay between these two main elements is a masterstroke, and results in the album being so much more than the sum of its parts. Lyrical highlights for me are "The Show", "Run For Your Life" and "Story 7".

Where There Existed An Addiction To Blood may fall down for people, however, is the frequent lack of any discernible beat or traditional hip-hop elements to grab onto. For large portions of the album Diggs' rapping is hung out over particularly arhythmic instrumentals, meaning some focus is needed to fully appreciate the flows that he is delivering. There are definitely beats to be found all over the album, but on the whole this is not an album of rap bangers. It is a story album, and the instrumentation first and foremost is there to serve that purpose. It is quite possible that this is going to turn a lot of people off this album, and I totally understand that - it is not an album that you can put on and enjoy in the background, and it is not a particularly fun album, either. It is an album that is steeped in atmosphere from start to finish, and is one-hundred-percent dedicated to committing to it.

This leads to perhaps another critique of the album - it is incredibly self-indulgent. Now that isn't necessarily automatically a bad thing, but after quite a number of listens I do start to get the sense that the group are convinced that they have put together the coolest thing to hit the rap game in a long time. While there are certainly elements of this album that are breathtakingly graphic and experimental in their excellence, it is definitely an album that is sometimes too self-important and assured for its own good. Case in point, the final track - "Piano Burning" - which is an 18-minute long field recording of exactly that. A piano burning. Having it sit right at the end of the album does mean that it doesn't significantly disrupt the flow of the track list in the way that it certainly would have done were it situated in the middle of the album somewhere, but I struggle to understand the reasoning that requires this track to exist in its 18-minute form. It is certainly creepy and unsettling, but needless in its length in particular. The other interlude tracks on the album do a better job of establishing and maintaining the mood of the album, even if "Prophesy (Interlude)" is too long, and the same can be said about "Possession (Interlude)".


In conclusion, while it does at times feel a little overblown and self-indulgent, There Existed An Addiction To Blood is exciting in its ambition, and often breathtaking in its execution of a vision that is crystal clear in its brutality, forwardness and narrative. It is another fantastic concept album from a group that had already proven their ability to craft meaningful story albums with Splendour & Misery, and a reminder that they are one of the most exciting, if not the most immediately accessible, groups working in hip-hop today.

Rating: A