New York emcee/producer ELUCID keeps busy. Only a couple of weeks after releasing the full-length debut of his new group with Milo, Nostrum Grocers, he comes right back with a new album from his previously established group with billy woods, Armand Hammer. A little under a year since their last album, Rome, came out, they return with Paraffin.

There’s something to be said about meeting expectations and staying consistent. Ever since Armand Hammer dropped their debut album, Race Music, back in 2013, they’ve worked at a steady pace to deliver dense and challenging hip hop. Paraffin is no exception. With production by Messiah Musik, Ohbliv, August Fanon, Willie Green, Kenny Segal, and ELUCID himself, Paraffin is an album that starts off hard and doesn’t let up over the course of fifteen tracks. From the opening bars of “Sweet Mickey,” we get this sharp drum hits played against these really tense, dissonant, distorted, and eerie melodic elements, which sets the tone for the entire album. Both woods and ELUCID have these clear and deliberate deliveries on the mic that cut through the discord, as they deliver lyrics that go from abstract poetry to cutting social observations to personal confessions and right back again. It’s the type of album that requires close listening, as it just packed with information, both sonically and lyrically, and you’re bound to catch something new each time through.

Paraffin isn’t too different than anything Armand Hammer has done before, but when you set yourself they way these two did when they first debuted as a duo, saying “more of the same” for them is really saying “more of something different and challenging,” so I’ll take it every time. Armand Hammer aren’t making hip hop for the faint of heart or those they just listen casually. They are making hip hop that is either going to drive you away or draw you all the way in. If you’re like me, you’ll give Paraffin your complete attention.