Emcees Curly Castro and PremRock had been friends and collaborators for years before they officially debuted as a duo called Shrapknel in 2019, when they released their first EP, Cobalt. They soon followed that up with their self-titled full-length album in 2020. Since that time, they’ve had a few setbacks, namely Curly Castro’s battle with some unexpected health issues. Even with all that going on, they never stopped writing, recording, and planning shit so that they were ready when things finally lined up again. Well, things have definitely come together, as they now present their new full-length album, Metal Lung.

For Metal Lung, Shrapknel enlisted Steel Tipped Dove to provide the bulk of the production, along with a couple of assists from Child Actor and Olof Melander. As you might expect, if you’re familiar with any of these artists, this is some dark, dense, experimental underground hip hop. There’s not much there if you’re looking for some pop hits. Shrapknel isn’t going to spoon-feed you anything. However, if you’re looking for lyricism that balances deep NBA and pop culture references with abstract poetry, philosophy, social commentary, and personal tales, all while rhyming over beats that come hard, stay hard, and veer off into unexpected territories, this is for you. It’s the type of album that is immediately exciting, but then you quickly realize there’s no way you’re going to catch everything the first time through, so you just get excited to hit play again as soon as the album comes to a close. It also helps that Prem and Curly have been working together so long and really balance each other with different approaches on the mic that play off one another so well. They bring a few friends along for the ride, including Rob Sonic, Fakts One, and Donovan Days & The Binary Marketing Show, who all do an excellent job, but it’s the unexpected appearance from Ethel Cee on “Obel” that comes out of nowhere to steal the show with this cool confidence that will have you asking “who?!” as you run to find more information about her. When you put it all together, you have an incredibly ambitious, well-balanced album that both challenges and rewards listeners.

Metal Lung picks up right where the self-titled debut album left off, with Curly Castro and PremRock just further refining their sound as a duo and getting sharper with each rhyme. They are both talented individuals, but the way they push and feed off of each other’s creative energies really takes Shrapknel to a special place with this album.