Mestizo is an emcee from Los Angeles, who has been putting out music since the early 2000s. Along with being a solo artist, he’s collaborated with the like of Doseone and Isiah Toothtaker. For his latest effort, he’s teamed up with The Heavy Twelves, a psych-electro-noise duo also out of Los Angeles. They’ve come together to release an EP on Fake Four called Big Bad Death.

Over the years, Mestizo has worked on a wide array of underground West Coast rap projects, so depending on how familiar you are with certain parts of his discography, this EP could sound right on time or wildly different than what you were expecting. If you spent time with A7PHA, his project with Doseone that came out last year on anticon., this sounds like a natural progression. It’s got a dark, aggressive tone, with The Heavy Twelves pumping up the distortion and reverb to add a touch of chaos to the harsh synth-driven beats and basslines they are laying down. The foreboding soundscape works well for Mestizo, who brings his deliberate pacing and low clear voice to talk about the bleakness he sees in this world, with this poetic touch that makes the words sting just a little. And while much of this EP has no use for niceness, Mestizo finds just enough space to talk about the things that give him hope and inspire him to keep moving forward, namely his family. It’s just enough to make the EP not just seem like a collection of doom, but more of a meditation on how dark the world can be, and how we all need to find something to help us keep moving.

Big Bad Death is not for the faint of heart, but for those seeking something a little more adventurous or unusual, this might be the EP for you. The Heavy Twelve are a talented production duo, pushing the envelope with psychedelic and industrial sounds, and Mestizo is veteran emcee who keeps challenging himself to try new things in his career. Together they’ve created some really challenging hip hop on Big Bad Death.