Madchild – “Shane 2” (Album Review)

This is the 9th full-length album from Vancouver titan Madchild. Coming up as part of the trio Swollen Members & the founder of Battle Axe Records, it wouldn’t be until 2012 when he officially broke off solo with his Suburban Noize Records-backed debut album Dope Sick. He would later go on a hot streak of follow-ups including Lawnmower Man, Silver Tongue Devil, the Evidence-produced The Darkest Hour & Demons. But ever since dropping The Little Monster LP from last winter, dude has been grinding his ass off following it up in the spring with The Little Monster LP 2 & then Shane in the summer. Now that we’re in the midst of fall, it’s fitting for Madchild is dropping Shane 2 before his upcoming collab EP with Obnoxious.

“Boom” sets it off with some horns & hi-hats talking about how life’s a scary movie with a psycho plot whereas “Abattoir” incorporates some dusty drums & a keyboard loop with the help of C-Lance welcoming listeners to his slaughterhouse. “Damage Control” sonically weaves in a faint vocal loop proclaiming himself as a broken soul leading into the guitar, boom bap fused “Kampai” talks about letting the beast out it’s cage.

Meanwhile on “Dog Tags”, we have Joey Oz joining Madchild over an airy trap instrumental from Jimmy Donn to say they were born with such on their chests just before the acoustic-tinged “Trapped” opening up on the demons in his head dancing. “A Confession” vividly tells the story of a good homie of his over a soulful boom bap instrumental, but then “Running” serves as a dark look into his depression.

“Rock Bottom” has a bit of a more playful sound to it with Madchild talking about coming from nothing whereas “Victims” is a jazzy battle rap anthem. The dejected guitar ballad “I Don’t Care” opens up about being cheated on leading into the symphonic “Hangman” getting on his confrontational shit. The penultimate track “Haunted” somberly confesses that he feels like he’s drowning while the closer “Overdose” is a bombastic look at his drug addiction.

It’s also worthy pointing out that “Salty” has a cool saxophone loop dissing those who’re envious of him, but then “OnlyFanz” is the epitome of fake woke basically saying he’s against sex work & even throws some transphobic jabs in the hook. Now as for Madchild putting freedom of speech in question after the song got the backlash it deserved: That’s not the case whatsoever. I & anyone with common sense is all for freedom of speech. It’s just that the talking points throughout the track are extremely shitty.

Much like how The Little Monster LP 2 is better than the predecessor, I can say the same thing about this. Yeah “OnlyFanz” is one of the worst songs of the year & I’ll even go as far to say it’s the worst song dude has ever made, but I like how it’s more serious than the first Shane was.

Score: 7/10