The Drum – “Freight Train”
Very few artists release a track so momentous and defining that every other artist who releases music of a similar nature is hard-pressed to match the incredibly high standards set by it. Musically incredible and lyrically so charged and dense, the “Freight Train” by The Drum is currently unrivalled in the hybrid genre that blends rock and rap. The Drum blows the doors down with track. The underground the musical landscape suddenly looks completely different with the The Drum’s latest steps. His contribution to both rock music and the rap culture on this record is massive.
On “Freight Train”, The Drum perfects the rap-rock formula that pioneers like the Beastie Boys, Aerosmith, Run-DMC and later Rage Against The Machine brought to the fore through the years, and created something more powerful, anthemic, and infectiously catchier than audiences could have ever imagined.
If the image of the preacher styled intro on “Freight Train”, is not already a bold statement of intent, then the visceral explosion of sound that follows should be enough to shake your bones to dust.
An incredible rock poet, one would argue that The Drum gives his peers a run for their money. The song is brimming with self-empowered confrontational sloganeering that is genuinely mind-blowing no matter how many times you hear the record.
From start to finish, “Freight Train” is one hell of a ride. The Drum’s singing is piercing and cathartic, while his cynical and abrasive rhyming provides all the grit and dirt that fans of this hybrid genre will love.
The Drum manages to make his voice sound like a tornado in its swirling fury, while the tightly wound musical heaviness dominates the record. Yet “Freight Train” is by no means an incessant beating over the head of pounding music and a wound-up The Drum wailing.
There is a good degree of melodic/abrasive balance in “Freight Train”, but when it breaks loose, with its barely controllable bombast and a devastating The Drum on the mic, it becomes an overpowering sonic storm. “Freight Train” is as innovative as it is intense, and remains one of the most searing rap-rock songs to come out this year. Suddenly anyone else playing around in this genre seems irrelevant, in relation to The Drum.
The rhyming and singing of The Drum combining with the ferocious power chords coming from the guitar make for a unique combination of sounds that should not work together but strangely do.
The fact of the matter is that The Drum really can rap, and he really can sing too. So he is a double-threat finding with a sound and voice, which comes barreling through on the “Freight Train”, ready to strike full force and leave an impact on those who listen.
The Drum spits out some of the most incendiary flows in his arsenal, on “Freight Train”, and when he breaks out into a rocking croon, he soars way above the instrumentation. “Freight Train” delivers explosive vocal dynamics, state of the art muscular music, and sheer power for your amps and loudspeakers.
