Mega!! Kung Fu Radio

by Chris Slawecki Powerman 5000 digs into the one of the more promising but apparently forgotten musical hybrid genres of the '90s -- the marriage of heavy metal, spastic funk, and hard, heavy rap. Like other music of this type (such as, in very different ways, Biohazard, Anthrax -- who once recorded with Public Enemy -- and Primus), Mega!! Kung Fu Radio is hard to explain and to describe. Essentially a turbo recharge of PM5K's 1995 full-length release, The Blood Splat Rating System (which merely won Best Metal Album, Best Rap Album, and Album of the Year in a reader's poll in their hometown of Boston), remixed and remastered and with two new songs, Mega!! Kung Fu Radio isn't a true rock & roll album, but it rocks hard. It isn't exactly a rap album, either, though lead singer Spider doesn't sing one single lyric, instead barking out the lyrics in a hard staccato delivery. Using the hallmarks of hard rock, funk and rap styles, PM5K creates a new, huge, violent sound, blurs of motion, and high-impact collisions in titles such as "20 Miles to Texas, 25 to Hell" and "A Swim with the Sharks."