Lo Key

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Reviews > Album Reviews > Lo Key – Shadowland

Shadowland

Monday 23rd January, 2012 by Scottie D | 0 Comments

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Throughout existence every culture has different lore that is passed down from generation to generation; the most various form of this handing down of information is by word of mouth. If anything makes more of an impact in this underground scene it is the word of mouth. The most talked about and widely theorized subject from culture to culture is the afterlife and the possibility of a world beyond our own. In today’s day and age, in our society one man, leader, and ghostly apparition has stood up and grabbed the torch for our generation, Lo Key.

Lo Key is an emcee who has been bringing his own form of underground/horror core to the masses for more than a decade now and has only gotten better over time, similarly to a fine wine. Any project he puts out is taken into meticulous consideration so that the product is as perfect as it can be, which shows. This past year, Lo Key has been venturing past our own reality and transcending the borders of what is real and what isn’t. In this venturing he has brought back a message of an impending doom that is awaiting us all once we meet that final moment in life and cross over to death; Shadowland.

Shadowland is a world that exists on this same plane as our own, it’s right underneath ours. We cannot see it because we are programmed not to, it is a polar opposite to the world we live in today. It is the culmination of the worlds negative energy, a cesspool of malevolence, it is where everything evil can call home. Any bad idea, any murderous though, anytime you felt like you had enough and this was the time to end it all, those are the types of feelings that have helped shaped this dimension and make it into the cold, heartless, soulless place it has quickly become. The album was released on 10/31/11 and has been creeping its way around the internet quickly and quietly.

It all starts off with Lo Key approaching you slowly mumbling something as he extends his palm out to you, you make out what he’s saying: “Together we venture hand in hand where the weak won’t go, where the light cant stand, in the space outside of the timeless sands, in the darkest depths of the Shadowland.” Your vision blackens out as your grasp his hand and you wake up in your room as you hear chaos unfolding out, just beyond your own bedroom window. The world is falling and all is being destroyed as darkness encompasses the light as you hear an echo over the land “and here we are..” The whisper of Nibiru awakens the dead and cynical alike across the land as they crawl out from their graves, sewers, homes, and institutions marching into the darkness; forming an insurmountable army.

Once the army is formed off in the distance you see them begin their march toward the open portal between Shadowland and our own world. At which time your own house begins to take on a life of its own. Everything is the same, yet something is off; you’re all alone but can feel the eyes around you in your room follow you across the room. The eyes can see but you can’t see are piercing; they’re sharp and cold, they’re dark and within your soul. The feeling being too much to bear you make your way to the front door, however a demon chases you tackling you down as you reach the handle, transporting you to Shadowland.

As you come to you see that you’re in a land that isn’t your home, you’re within a realm that has shattered your own. The smell of sulfur and brimstone fill the air as you hear the agony and cries of pain on the wind’s echoing breeze you think to yourself all the pieces of your own reality are falling away as you try to make sense of the situation.

You begin to walk, toward the light in the sky, it isn’t a star or our sun for that matter just an open void of light affixed high in the air for you to reach for. You walk over the desolate landscape where all your evil thoughts and wrong doings over take you in a whirlwind of despair. There is a group of figures near you, you approach them seeing if they can help; then you notice the blood. You then realize that you’re lost in another dimension as blood drenched henchmen pretend to lend you friendship. This friendship is short-lived as the horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach comes to fruition as they begin ripping and tearing at your flesh trying to devour your very self, you run.

Running as fast as you can, not knowing where you’re headed, your smacked in the side of the head with a rock launched from the darkness. You awake, again, to find yourself in the middle of a painted circle with twelve shrouded figures around you. You ask what the meaning of everything is at which point the figures, in a synchronized manner scream “Witness the sickening, vicious, and hideous symphony; knife out within the thickening images flickering, killing you vividly!” The twelve figures all dematerialize into the shape of one and offer you the choice of life or death. In order to live all you have to do is trust within him and open your mind to let him in.

You agree to let him in and once it is done you feel a new power unfelt before in your life. It’s like a resurrection of an ability you don’t remember losing. You feel the surging sensation of Nibiru through your veins as you try to keep moving toward the light you have this inevitable pull away, downward into the darkness. The further into the darkness you venture Nibiru begins to engage you in a dialogue within your own mind beneath a horribly disfigured, twisted tree. Nibiru explains that he has brought you to this point, to the devil tree, and you must die now for the oracle to be released. It is explained that he is god in a world that is godless, it is he who exists without logic, and he was put on this planet to play with our prophets.

Sitting under the devil tree you look at the ground on your side and notice a pistol sitting there. There is an overwhelming feeling of picking it up, putting the barrel to your head and pulling the trigger.

You fight with yourself as the minutes drag into hours as your reflect your life and the ventures you’ve had to get to this point. You realize your like everyone and everything else in Shadowland; soulless and heartless dwelling in the shadows and valley of darkness. You think of life before Shadowland and how happy you were once, yet that is only a memory of a time that’s so far away and here there is no hope. As this realization crosses your mind the trigger is pulled and the hammer clicks.

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