Til the Casket Drops Columbia**

The Thornton brothers' grinding and persistence paid off three years ago with Hell Hath No Fury, an uncompromising chronicle of dark deeds and dubious deals.

That majestic, claustrophobic album set a pace for other streetwise hustlers keen to get their hard-knock lives on tape. The Virginia hard-rhymers now return as rulers of their own domain and there are problems apparent from the get-go. The Neptunes have jumped ship, for one thing, and replacements Sean C and LV can't match the former's eerie, sinister, skewered soundscapes. Worse, the lyrical flow is uneven and patchy, as the duo dumb down to match the overblown, bland and clunky sounds. It takes such tracks as Freedomand There Was a Murderto remind you of why Clipse made such an impact back in their Lord Willin days, and what's sorely lacking here. www.myspace.com/ clipse

Download tracks: Freedom, There Was a Murder