AMG Review of Mega!! Kung Fu Radio

Chris Slawecki
All Music Guide

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."