‘Gettin Down with the OG Sinners’ – A sum-up of Public Enemies debut album!

The star duo of QAPITAL 2017 has been hard at work since they had the honour to headline one of the biggest Raw events of the year. Not only have they been busy in the studio, they have also made appearances at every big event a Harder Styles fan can think of. Bass Events Outdoor, Emporium Festival, Defqon.1, The Qontinent, Q-BASE, heck, these guys even had the privilege to perform during primetime of this year’s Supremacy. So who are they? Well, it’s Digital Punk and Hard Driver’s nearly formed live-act and it’s definitely going places. We can call that a given fact from what we’ve seen from these dudes so far.

So what can we expect from their newly released album? Well I’d like to start off that I was expecting it to get a lot more exposure. These are two heavyweights within Hardstyle, in fact two of my favourite artists in that fine silver lining of Raw Hardstyle and even ‘Rawer’ Hardstyle. Don’t get me wrong, I love these guys. Digital Punk’s album from last year was one of my favourites and he even did an album-tour to the city I lived in at the time and it was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen in Sweden.

Hard Driver is also one of my favourites ever since he put that helmet on and started releasing all those insane tracks. In fact, he was actually a favourite of mine before he even put that helmet on from back in his Fenix days. So I am really surprised to see that there was such little hype around this album gathering on social media.

Nonetheless, let’s take a look at their brand-new album “Original Sinners.” Did this bundle of music live up to their separate set of skills? Let’s start out with the tracks I dug the most.

#2. OG Sinners

I am a sucker for rhymes and in this one, Public Enemies give a certain pep to the track and not to mention, a lot of nifty things to add to your selfies on Instagram. A track that truly smashes through one’s speakers.

#8. Son of Torture (A Remix of Ran-D & Zany Ft. Nikkitas track from 2011)

Oh it feels so good to hear Nikkita in Hardstyle again. She was truly one of my favourite vocalists and her voice was so suited to our beloved genre’s sound. This remix is definitely a huge undertaking, but in all honesty it turned out to become one of my personal faves of the album. Maybe I’m biased just because I’m hearing Nikkita again, but it feels a bit like Digital Punk and Hard Driver put some good character into this classic.

#13. Chopped Up

Jesus CHRIST, what a nightmarish BOMB. The intro literally has that feeling of something chopping the hell out of someone else in true horror film fashion. The breaks accompanied to that looping swoosh-like sound are as we say ‘LIT’. The last drop is so good, that quite frankly this bomb is something that deserves to be belted through the colossal GelreDome speakers.

#14. Enemies of the State

Oh I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the best part of a Raw Hardstyle album in my own opinion is when the tempo goes up. What a banger to end with! Such a creepy melody accompanied by a brutal kick in just the right tempo for my taste.

Overall

I’m not going to lie. To some extent this album feels a bit as though Digital Punk and Hard Driver really wanted to join Adaro and Ran-D’s coalition Gunz For Hire, but got declined simply because they weren’t interested in having any new members in the clubhouse. This is by no means a bad thing; inspiration is a good thing to have in this scene and we wouldn’t be hearing what we hear at today’s Defqon if it weren’t for what the artists of today were hearing at yesterday’s Defqon.

It’s actually this style that makes me like this album. The kicks are so blazingly heavy they almost feel like nuclear bombs, yet the tracks are still full of atmosphere. But at the same time, I kind of feel like the sound that Public Enemies have released so far will be even better when they reach their full potential. That is of course, if they continue working together. Which I hope they do, because I like what they are doing and as I always say, it’s amazing to see what two great artists can come up with when they work together.

If it weren’t for the generic-ness of the album the overall score would be higher. The tracks don’t differ too much from one another, which to me is what surprises me the most because both Digital Punk and Hard Driver are so incredibly diverse normally. Only time will tell where this will go in time, but this for now we’ve got this album. Take a listen and let us know what you think!

We rate it 7/10.