Youth Code / King Yosef - A Skeleton Key in the Doors of Depression

When Youth Code launched 'Puzzle' last year, I though that it was going to build up to a new album that would slowly trickle out over time. However, as it was, that turned out to be false. Instead of a solo Youth Code album, I found myself staring at a collaborative project between them and King Yosef - a producer I've never heard of before in a genre I'm unfamiliar with. However, when 'Looking Down' first appeared I gave the song a listen...And then another one. And another one. And another and another until I found myself loving the hell out of the hybrid track from the two projects respectively. That led me to hype myself up for the release of "A Skeleton Key in the Doors of Depression" and ordering the 12" Vinyl of it. Sure, I didn't know what the rest of the album was going to sound like, but I didn't care. I was ninety percent sure it was going to be a great album and, as it so happens, my musical intuition turned out to prove true. 



Though "A Skeleton Key in the Doors of Depression" is an album that has banger after banger, just like many other fans I find myself dragged toward some of the songs more than others. Whenever I sit in my car on the way to work, one of the songs that I wish to hear the most is 'Claw / Crawl'. It starts off with a quiet build up of scratchy synths and electronic blips before Yosef and Taylor break into shouts together. Yosef takes the mic over a primarily industrial beat featuring the thrashy electronics Youth Code is known for. Taylor and Yosef then go back and forth for a while before a quickened, glitchy break down occurs. Towards the end of the song a bang drowns the song into silence before a final thirty-second, vocally driven performance saw the song out. 

The second song on the album has become one of the tracks that sees me through intense workouts at the gym. Raw and destructive percussion kicks off the album with Taylor's punk-driven industrial shouts playing out. Yosef comes in later, with his screams backed by guitars. What I love is the chorus of this song when an incredibly wicked synth line takes over for the briefest moments. Yosef's solo moment on this track is incredibly impressive, allowing his trap metal undertakings to reign supreme. I have also had many embarassing karaoke moments shouting the lyrics to this song in my car, "Pulled back like the ash on a cigarette / Burnt up and crushed down just the same / Disposable and as easy forgotten / I'm your relief to circumvent the pain". 

One of the sludgiest songs on the album has to be 'Death Safe'. What starts off with gritty electronic build-up turns into a sludge-built cacophony of noise. When I first listened to this song, I was in the kitchen with a friend and we were preparing separate meals. I had it playing on my little Bluetooth speaker. As soon as the distorted guitars kicked in around the one-minute mark, my friend and I began to slowly nod our heads to the beat at the same time. The glitchy effects found throughout the song add into the filth it brings to the album. Utterly brilliant and definitely a song I willingly come back to over and over again. 

"A Skeleton Key in the Doors of Depression" is a huge leap for Youth Code; they have already proven to me time and time again that their music rocks on its own. However, now they're showing that they can manage an extraordinary album with another producer. All self-released with little help from the outside, it's a work of industrial and trap metal wonders. What's more is that, unlike some collaborations I've listened to in the past, "A Skeleton Key in the Doors of Depression" has made me want to further explore King Yosef's discography. As stated earlier in this review, I was completely unaware of Yosef prior to the release of 'Looking Down'. So, now that I'm aware of him - and what he's capable of - I want to give his music a shot in the dark. For all these reasons and more, I award this album an eight-and-a-half out of ten; a must-listen for fans of the genre. 
Mar 18 2021