Trial By Fire- Yelawolf- Album Review

    Here is another artist who I didn’t realize how good they were until very recently. I

originally had written Yelawolf off as a hillbilly party rapper, but after hearing his verse on the

Shady records cypher a while back I began to appreciate his lyrical ability. Around this same

time I saw a YouTuber who I follow called the Rap Critic put the song Shadows on his best of

the year list for 2016, and it’s easy to see why. Shadows is a complete masterpiece, mixing dark

bluegrass and folk elements with vivid imagery and lyrics that remind me of a southern Kendrick

Lamar.

    Shadows was the first single released ahead of the full album Trial by Fire, along with

Row Your Boat and Punk. While I enjoyed both of the other singles, Shadows was far and away

the best single and ultimately the best song on the album proper. The full album starts with the

title track that serves as an introductory skit to the whole album, setting the scene of Yelawolf,

Bones Owens and DJ Klever performing in a blues bar. This opener has a distinct and powerful

southern rock sound with Yelawolf rapping the story of his birth that blends into Shadows.

    As I said I loved Shadows before the album came out, and hearing it in the context of the

album is even more awesome. The third track is a hyper aggressive Nu-Metal/Rap Rock

throwback with a bit of southern rock flavor thrown in for good measure. The thing that makes

this track a bit strange is the featured artist of Kid Rock. This certainly feels like something in

the style of late 90s early 2000s era Kid Rock and it’s a pretty solid track.

    After Get Mine we have one of the best tracks on the album that really lets Yelawolf dip

into his storyteller side with Son of A Gun. Similarly to the opening track, this is a

autobiographical track, this time detailing his destructive nature and the similarities to his father.

This really shows the perfect way that country and rap can blend together as the biggest element

of these two genres when done right is storytelling. The next track is a heartwarming one about a

friend of Yelawolf’s who despite taking a different path in life has always had his back.

    The album then has a spoken word interlude which perfectly sets up one of the best tracks

on the album, Daylight. Daylight is a good split between a drinking party song and a positive

turn on the album. Do For Love is a pretty average track on the album that has good lyrics but

kind of a mediocre sound. The next track Punk has a blistering tempo and powerful rhythm,

courtesy of Travis Barker, but Juicy J’s hook is kind of lacking in my opinion.

    Row Your Boat is proof that they knew what they were doing when they picked the

singles off of this album. Aside from Punk I would say that the singles off of this album were all

of the top songs here. Row Your Boat has a kind of laid back beat on it but features one of the

most interesting flows on the album with Yelawolf having a slippery flow that slides into each

line on the verses. He also does a good job performing his own hook in a way that suits the low

key vibe of the song.

    True to Yourself features guitarist Bones Owens actually singing the hook as well as

playing on it and has some sick trumpet playing. Sound wise this track is very similar to

Shadows and is pretty solid. The next track Sabrina is a bit of an odd track as Yelawolf raps

nearly acapella the story of his fictional daughter drowning in a lake near his house. On Violin

Yelawolf raps about various people who have been used or “played like a violin”, including a

soldier abandoned by his country and a woman in an abusive relationship. The song features

violins throughout it behind a military drum roll and a soulful hook by Lee Brice.

The final track is a huge standout, featuring Yelawolf at his best telling his life story in

vivid detail over a a mix hip hop synth bass, country lap steel and bluegrass mandolin. The

chorus features country star Wynonna Judd giving the perfect summation of the song, singing

“This is my story, This is my glory, This is what keeps me alive”. This track, and this album as a

whole is what happens when a storyteller with a gift for poetic writing takes full control over a

project.

          The self produced effort by Yelawolf feels not only like his strongest work, but also his
most complete and fleshed out work. It’s weird to say that a rap album only has touches of hip
hop production, but the majority of this album’s music is Bones Owens’ guitar and lap steel
playing with touches of 808 drums and hip hop bass accompanying acoustic snare rolls and
piano. While the elements used on this album might not sound like they would go together that
well, this album truly is more than the sum of its parts.