Hotel Diablo
The cover of Machine Gun Kelly’s *Hotel Diablo* features the Cleveland MC as a child, hanging upside down with his head cracked open, his innermost thoughts ostensibly falling out for the world to hear. If the actual album is to be believed, what’s been cooped up inside a young MGK’s head is pain. Across the album, he catalogs a number of anguishes, including the continued and unrelenting jeers of the internet (“Floor 13”), battles with suicidal tendencies (“Glass House”), and what sounds like an extremely strained, if not irreparable, relationship with his own mother (“Burning Memories”). His signature blend of rap vocals and gnashing rock guitars is here, as are standout contributions from Trippie Redd, Travis Barker, and YUNGBLUD.
Even an allusion to the rapper's highly publicised beef with Emimen can't lift this lumpen retread of weary, tried-and-tested rap-rock tropes
Death hangs over everything on Hotel Diablo, rapper/actor Machine Gun Kelly's fourth and most well-executed artistic statement to date.